The EU top court rules that married same-sex couples can move freely between EU Member States as “spouses”: case C-673/16, Relu Adrian Coman, Robert Clabourn Hamilton, Asociaţia Accept v Inspectoratul General pentru Imigrări, Ministerul Afacerilor Interne

Tryfonidou, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0639-0356 (2019) The EU top court rules that married same-sex couples can move freely between EU Member States as “spouses”: case C-673/16, Relu Adrian Coman, Robert Clabourn Hamilton, Asociaţia Accept v Inspectoratul General pentru Imigrări, Ministerul Afacerilor Interne. Feminist Legal Studies, 27 (2). pp. 211-221. ISSN 0966-3622 doi: 10.1007/s10691-019-09397-z

Abstract/Summary

In the Coman case, the European Court of Justice was asked whether the term “spouse” – for the purposes of EU law – includes the same-sex spouse of an EU citizen who has moved between EU Member States. The ECJ answered this question affirmatively, holding that a refusal to recognise a same-sex marriage and the resultant refusal to grant family reunification rights to a Union citizen who moves to another Member State, would constitute an unjustified restriction on the right to free movement that Union citizens enjoy under EU law. This case comment analyses the judgment, arguing that the Court’s pronouncement is a very welcome first step towards marriage equality at a cross-border level in the EU. At the same time, following the delivery of this ruling, a lot of questions have arisen and gaps in the protection of same-sex couples persist, and these are also analysed in this piece.

Additional Information	A correction to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-019-09403-4
Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/82988
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Law
Additional Information	A correction to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-019-09403-4
Publisher	Springer
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