Corte di cassazione no 2015/2400: Corte di cassazione : sezione civile=Court of Cassation Civil Section : Italy: 9 February 2015

Human rights – Right to respect for private and family life – Right to marry – Interference with – Same-sex couple filing appeal against Municipal Civil Registrar’s refusal to publish banns of marriage – Refusal upheld by civil courts of first and second instance – Neither Italian Constitution nor Civil Code providing gender-related definition of marriage – Civil Code regulating marriage between man and woman but not between same-sex couples – Constitutional Court’s existing ruling on analogous case upholding current legislation under (1) Constitutional principles of human dignity and equality, (2) European Convention on Human Rights and Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union relying on state’s margin of appreciation on regulation of same-sex partnerships, (3) Court’s lack of jurisdiction to extend right to marry to same-sex couples – Same-sex couple requesting referral to Constitutional Court for alleged unconstitutionality of Civil Code on basis of (a) denial of right to contract marriage on an equal basis to non-homosexuals, (b) discrimination based on sexual orientation, (c) limitation of legal capacity based on sexual orientation, (d) diminution of social dignity of homosexual persons, (e) prevention of development and expression of personality within type of union widely recognized by international and European human rights charters – Whether court should overrule previous ruling on same-sex marriage – Whether exclusion of same-sex couples from right to marry unlawful under multi-level (international, European and national constitutional) system of human rights protection – Italian Civil Code arts 107, 108, 143, 143 bis , 143 ter , 153 bis – Italian Constitution arts 2, 3, 10.1, 22, 29, 117 – Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union arts 9 and 21 – European Convention on Human Rights, arts 8, 12, and 14.