Familienpolitik

1. Same-sex marriage: Many European countries are extending the rights and advantages of marriage to same-sex couples. Other countries have recently moved to declare such unions illegal or unconstitutional. Some groups are fighting for U.S. immigration law to recognize same-sex marriages or to open up international adoption to same-sex couples.

Gay Canadians’ Quest for Marriage Seems Near Victory

Spanish parliament gives approval to bill to legalize same-sex marriages

2. Policies promoting or limiting child-bearing: Faced with a ballooning population, the Peoples Republic of China instituted a one-child policy in 1979 to limit population growth. The government considers the program a success and points to China’s economic expansion as evidence. In Europe, however, many countries face such low fertility rates that their economies and social programs are threatened. European governments have created all sorts of incentive programs, some paying parents thousands of Euros a year, to encourage baby-making.

China to keep one-child policy

Guide to China’s one-child policy

China’s surplus of sons: a geopolitical time bomb

Being a 2007 German New Year’s baby is like winning the lotto

3. Religion and family law: Increased immigration has led to the development of cultural minorities with religious practices that are sometimes at odds with the law of the land they’ve settled in. Honor killings and physical abuse present a complex challenge for European governments as they struggle to protect their Enlightenment-based legal system while remaining enlightened.

Brothers of slain Turkish woman to be retried

New case law: circumcision as the basis for custody modification?