Emotions in private international law? The example of cross-border recognition of formalized same-sex relationships in Lithuania
ENPrivate international law appears to be detached from emotions. The discipline offers an allegedly apolitical style “as if” lawyers in this field are mere technicians. That is not the reality. Applicable foreign laws which deviate from the domestic substantive law and “norms” may be refused application - and people may be refused recognition of their civil status of their “couple-ship” which is closely related to their identity. A civil status concluded abroad, a marriage or a registered partnership, could occasionally be met by “aversion” or “repulsion” and “gut reactions” in the State where recognition is sought. That process cannot be explained in legal terms only. Maarit Jänterä-Jareborg has written that a fear of “the foreign” may stand behind the use of private international law as a tool to refuse the recognition of foreign marriages. A neutrally formulated legal rule can indeed be used, and even abused, in order to mobilize on internal societal tensions and fears. Refusal to recognize “the foreign” has in the last decade become more relevant, despite the long tradition of openness to “the global” in private international law and the principle of favouring the status validity.
