Beyond Privacy: The Need for a Broader Understanding of Marriage in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal.

This article scrutinises the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal concerning same-sex marriage and the legal acknowledgment of same-sex relationships, specifically focusing on the recent decisions in Fedotova & Ors v Russia and Sham Tsz Kit (岑子杰) v Secretary for Justice. The authors critically analyse the courts' interpretation of marriage, privacy, and equality. They conclude that whilst both courts took a step forward by recognising same-sex partnerships, they also took two steps back by foreclosing any future attempts to litigate for universal marriage rights via the application of the equality principle. The authors draw on a variety of judgments from courts in Nepal, Taiwan, the United States, Latin America, and Europe to support their arguments. The article concludes by posing the question of how universal human rights can be maintained in the face of these challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]