IMPACT OF LEGAL REGULATION OF SAME-SEX COHABITING COUPLES ON MARRIAGE REGULATION IN LIGHT OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS’ CASE LAW

Abstract

This paper aims to show how the existence of a legal figure that recognises and protects de facto unions between persons of the same sex influences the legal regulation of marriage, specifically with regard to its openness to same-sex couples. To do so, it carries out a systematised analysis of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights on the rights to private and family life, to marriage and to found a family, and the prohibition of discrimination, and contrasts its foundations with the results of the Chilean Constitutional Court in the two cases decided before Law No. 21.400 on equal marriage, in relation to the recognition of same-sex unions.