[wahern]

The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly faced the question of gay marriage and has denied the find such a right each time. One of the more recent cases is Chapin and Charpentier v. France, 2016:

> In Chapin and Charpentier v. France, 2016, the Court reiterated that neither Article 12, nor Article 14 in conjunction with Article 8, which was more general in purpose and scope, could be interpreted as imposing an obligation on the Contracting States to open marriage to same sex couples.

https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Guide_Art_12_ENG.pdf (see also https://eclj.org/marriage/the-echr-unanimously-confirms-the-...)

I don't know much about European law but it seems one of the principal reasons is that Articles 8 and 12 specifically speak to marriage and are worded in a manner (in the court's opinion) which presume heterosexual marriages, effectively circumscribing the scope of potential Article 14 anti-discrimination protections wrt marriage.

[rayiner]

Article 12 states: “Men and women of marriageable age have the right to marry and to found a family, according to the national laws governing the exercise of this right.”

The EHCR has found the use of “men and women,” along with the “historical context” in which the clause was adopted, to mean that Article 12 applies to marriage as traditionally understood: between one man and one woman.