April Lesbigay Law Notes now available

The April edition of Professor Art Leonard's indispensable Lesbian/Gay Law Notes is now available.  In the lead story, a panel of the European Court of Human Rights has held that Polish officials violated Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights when they categorically denied tenant succession rights to same-sex couples but allowed succession rights to unmarried opposite-sex couples.  The Polish court had held that any succession right under a claim of de facto marriage could not apply to same-sex couples, since marriage was limited to opposite-sex couples.  The panel of the European Court held that the legal distinction between same-sex and opposite-sex couples was not justified.   The panel also affirmed that the European Convention on Human Rights prohibits members-states from interpreting their own laws in a way that unjustifiably discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation.

-SS