neo_o said:
I'm looking through my pocket Australian Constitution (I always carry one in case of emergencies) and I can't seem to find the section that guarantees a "right for happiness". Is this an implied right?
Why do law students constantly refer to the law, especially when it's clearly not needed? It's really irritating, to me at least.
Extra-legal values form the basis for the creation of statutes and statutory interpretation. Legal Formalism is such a silly notion when it comes to issues of this magnitude, especially considering that noone here is arguing that queer marriages have a legal basis. If they were saying that, they should take it up in court. Therefore, she was clearly referring to non-legal human rights, which is a value, and values are the starting point for any legal system.
And Jonathan A, be more specific with what you say. Are you saying that queer civil unions deserve the rights equating to a straight marriage, bar the 'entering of an institution'?
Or are you saying that some rights, among the 'entering of an institution', are not to be granted. If so, which?
Thirdly, what institution are you talking about? Because I don't think many gay people want to enter into it, anyway. It's just impractical to keep saying 'same-sex civil union'. If you're like, you can pretend that every time I say 'marriage' in the context of same-sex civil unions, that I'm saying 'same-sex civil union'. Because frankly, I'm not going to adopt some silly legal jargon simply because you refuse to let me into your silly notion of what an institution is. Even most straight marriages that I know don't conform to any institutional notions.
They're living together, they love each other, they're committed to each other, they share their belongings = a marriage.