ABSTRACT. This paper shows the results of an empirical analysis on the case law published by Italian and English Courts on same-sex issues such as same-sex marriage, same-sex parenthood, and transsexualism. Comparative methodology has been used in searching gender stereotypes in the text of judges’ decisions in family case law, especially to the “traditional” and “natural” gender roles: male-female, husband-wife, father-mother. The aim of the paper is to analyze through judges’ legal reasoning how the social evolution on gender roles are treated in both English and Italian legal systems. The results of this analysis seem to demonstrate that the regulation of same-sex couples is merely a political and ideological issue and the use of “tradition” and “nature” concepts are mere argumentative pretexts to justify it. pp. 147–170

Keywords: gender stereotypes; same-sex marriage; same-sex parenthood; transsexualism; comparative law; family law

How to cite: Falletti, Elena (2015), “Judges and Stereotypes on Same-sex Issues: Analysis of Case Law from a Comparative Perspective in English and Italian Family Law,” Journal of Research in Gender Studies 5(2): 147–170.

Received 25 July 2015 • Received in revised form 9 September 2015
Accepted 10 September 2015 • Available online 20 September 2015