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Charlotte Kelly - 3rd September 2018
The case of Owens v Owens rocked the legal world in late July, when the Supreme Court decided that Tini Owens could not divorce her husband, despite the court recognising that this could leave her “trapped in an unhappy marriage.” Her husband, Hugh John Owens, had sought to defend against Mrs Owens’ petition for divorce […]
Fraciah Muringi - 12th December 2016
The High Court of Kenya in A.M.N & 2 others v The Attorney General & 5 others was faced with the issue of how surrogacy agreements ought to be enforced. Since there was no law governing surrogacy in Kenya, the Court had recourse to the United Kingdom’s (UK) position. In this petition, the parentage of […]
Karl Laird - 18th June 2016
It has recently been announced that the challenge to the prohibition on opposite sex couples entering into civil partnerships in England and Wales is due to be heard by the Court of Appeal in November 2016. This announcement provides an opportunity to consider what was decided in High Court. The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act […]
Stephanie Tai - 19th January 2016
At the end of October 2015, the Chinese government announced that it would end its one-child policy by replacing it with the two-child policy. China’s two-child policy is a false triumph for human rights. Whilst some have greeted this as a step in the right direction, the mere existence of a policy controlling the number […]
Nehaa Chaudhari - 12th November 2015
India’s reported decision to ban surrogacy for foreigners has received plenty of news coverage and analysis in Indian and international media over the past week. This post is a comment on the related legislative developments around assisted reproductive technologies in India. Largely unregulated, the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) industry is of significant value in India. […]
Frances Raday - 2nd September 2015
In recent years at the United Nation’s Human Right’s Council (UNHRC) an ideological challenge has been directed against the universality of international human rights by a strong religious lobby. Religions themselves have, in the human rights era, self-identified as the core of resistance to universal human rights and, in particular, to women’s right to equality […]
Nicholas Bamforth - 23rd July 2015
By including same-sex couples within the constitutional right to marry, the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges (26th June 2015) is of great practical significance. It also offers broader food for thought for human rights lawyers, both about constitutional decision-making in the United States and from a comparative perspective. Three points […]
Sidharth Luthra and Viraj Gandhi - 16th July 2015
India is a country where religious rights of different communities are constitutionally protected. However adoption is legally permitted only for the Hindu community. Such adoptions are regulated by the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956. For persons of other religions and foreigners, the Guardian and Wards Act, 1890 [“GAWA”] permits appointment of a Guardian for […]
Barbara Havelkova and Yulia Ioffe - 10th July 2015
Dubská and Krejzová v the Czech Republic has been referred to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights after the successful submission of the League of Human Rights supported by Oxford Pro Bono Publico. The right of women to choose the birthplace of their children has again come under the spotlight of […]
Daniel J Hoppe and Matthew Tyler - 7th July 2015
In his recent post The Beginning Rather Than The End, Karl Laird discusses the potential policy backlash that may result from the recent Obergefell decision. In analyzing Obergefell, however, it is important to also consider whether or not the Court, in rendering this decision, actually damaged the dramatic progress that same sex couples have been making in societal attitudes. There is no doubt that the Court had a legal right to render a […]
Danish Sheikh - 6th July 2015
Three narratives provide the human face to the text of Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark US Supreme Court decision recognizing the right of same-sex couples to participate in the institution of marriage. The Court recounts James Obergefell’s struggle to be listed as the surviving spouse on his partner’s death certificate, the uncertainty that an unmarried […]
Karl Laird - 29th June 2015
There is no doubt that the Supreme Court’s judgment in Obergefell v Hodges is an historic one. That is not to say, however, that the struggle for LGBT equality is over. Indeed, it may only have begun. The judgment in Obergefell has all the characteristics of Justice Kennedy’s earlier jurisprudence concerning LGBT equality. In holding […]