Case Summaries 

GRANT V. SOUTHWEST TRAINS LTD.,
ECR I-621 (European Court of Justice, 1998)

In this case, the European Court of Justice heard a referral for a preliminary ruling under Article 119 of the European Community Treaty arising from the denial of travel benefits for a same-sex partner of an employee of Southwest Trains.

The petitioner, Ms. Grant, argued that because unmarried opposite-sex partners of employees were given the benefits, the refusal of benefits to her partner constituted sex discrimination (17). She also argued that the denial constituted “sexual orientation” discrimination which should be considered unlawful discrimination “based on sex” for purposes of the Treaty (18).

The court held that because male workers and female workers would be affected identically by the denial of benefits, there was no discrimination on the basis of sex (28).

The court observed that the European Parliament and the Community member states do not treat same-sex cohabitation the same as either marriage or opposite-sex cohabitation (31-32). It also notes that the European Commission for Human Rights does not consider disparate treatment of same-sex couples to be a violation of Articles 8 and 14 of the Convention and that the Europan Court of Human Rights has construed Article 12 to apply only to traditional marriage (33-34). The court concluded that the legislature alone had the authority to change the position of same-sex couples (36).

The court also rejected the “sexual orientation” discrimination claim noting that the clear wording of the Treaty referred only to sex discrimination (47).

Date: January 9, 2001