Kees Waaldijk - The Right to Relate: a Lecture on the Importance of "Orientation" in Comparative Sexual Orientation Law (inaugural lecture, Leiden University, 20 April 2012)

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This is the video recording of the inaugural lecture that professor Kees Waaldijk gave on 20 April 2012, in the historic Academy Building of Leiden University, to accept his appointment to Leiden University’s new chair in Comparative Sexual Orientation Law as of 1 May 2011. This sponsored chair is financed through the Betsy Brouwer Fund, established by private donation at the Leiden University Fund (LUF). Professor Waaldijk is a member of the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, one of the departments of Leiden Law School. This inaugural lecture, entitled ‘The Right to Relate: a Lecture on the Importance of “Orientation” in Comparative Sexual Orientation Law’, has since been published in English, in Dutch, in Vietnamese and in Italian.

Abstract: The right to establish and develop relationships with other human beings was first articulated - as an aspect of the right to respect for private life - by the European Commission of Human Rights in 1976. Since then such a right has been recognized in similar words by national and international courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. This lecture traces the origins of this right, linking it to the meaning of the word "orientation" and to the basic psychological need for love, affection, and belongingness. It proposes to speak of "the right to relate" and argues that this right can be seen as the common theme in all issues of sexual orientation law (ranging from decriminalization and anti-discrimination to the recognition of refugees and of same-sex parenting). This right can be used as the common denominator in the comparative study of all those laws in the world that are anti-homosexual or that are same-sex-friendly. The right to establish (same-sex) relationships implies both a right to come out and a right to come together. The right to develop (same-sex) relationships is being made operational through legal respect, legal protection, legal recognition, legal formalization, and legal recognition of foreign formalization.

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