LGBT+ Rights and Court Organization. Insights on Parentage Litigation in France and Chile

Scholarship on LGBT+ rights has long been studying how social movements interact with legislative, executive, and judicial institutions in order to change law. It has assessed how strategic litigation is used by LGBT+ movements and by conservative groups. It has also scrutinized the complex relationship between the three branches of power over the framing of minority rights. However, most of these studies have focused on common-law jurisdictions (especially the US) or on international courts (especially the ECHR).

This talk is part of a cross-national socio-legal study on LGBT+ parental rights. It focuses on two civil-law jurisdictions, namely France and Chile, and on parentage litigation involving same-sex couples who use ARTs and surrogacy. It shows that, along with well-known dimensions of LGBT+ litigation, court organization matter when it comes to litigate about parentage. More precisely, recent reforms in Chilean family courts have helped litigants to success, whereas French inherited court organization has impeded judicial change. This study therefore pleas for a closer attention to court organization for gender & sexuality scholars, and well as for researchers in organization studies.

The seminar will be held in English.

www.score.su.se