“Classical models of the couple and the family are undergoing vast changes in the developed world, as can be seen from the following trends: postponed marriages, frequent divorces, co-habitation, restructured families, adoptions and medically-assisted childbearing. Besides these long-term sociological changes, the Aids epidemic revealed the precarious legal situation of homosexual couples in France, who until recently had absolutely no rights. As a result, the legal situation of homosexuals in France finally became a subject for debate in the public arena at the end of 1980. The official realisation that something had to be done to improve the legal rights of couples of the same sex was fuelled by numerous studies and ideological positions. Should homosexual unions be recognised? Can foreign models of homosexual unions serve as a point of reference? What was the process of recognition? What could be the consequences? These are but some of the questions raised in this book, which provides all the necessary historical references concerning the social recognition of same-sex couples through the ages. Above all, it provides information on the various legal forms that such social recognition has taken in France as well as in other countries in Europe and North America.”
Flora Leroy-Forgeot and Caroline Mécary

Flora Leroy-Forgeot is a researcher at the Institut Michel-Villey of Legal Studies and Philosophy of Law, at the University of Paris II. She is the author of Histoire Juridique de l’Homosexualité en Europe, published by Publications Universitaires de France.

Caroline Mécary is a lawyer on the Paris bar and teaches at the University of Paris XII. She is the co-author, with G. de Pradelle, of Les Droits des Homosexuels/les, published by Publications Universitaires de France.