Queer kinship practices in non-western contexts: French Polynesia's gender-variant parents and the law of la république

Journal of Law and Society

Volumn 37, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 651-677

  Zanghellini, Aleardo ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF READING   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CHILD; CHILD CARE; CHILD PARENT RELATION; CHILD WELFARE; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; ETHNIC AND RACIAL GROUPS; ETHNOLOGY; FAMILY RELATION; FAMILY SIZE; FRANCE; GENDER IDENTITY; HISTORY; HOMOSEXUALITY; HUMAN; INFANT; LEGAL ASPECT; PHYSIOLOGY; POLYNESIA; PRESCHOOL CHILD; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT;

CHILD; CHILD CARE; CHILD WELFARE; CHILD, PRESCHOOL; FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS; FAMILY RELATIONS; FRANCE; GENDER IDENTITY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 21ST CENTURY; HOMOSEXUALITY; HUMANS; INFANT; PARENTING; POLYNESIA; POPULATION GROUPS;

EID: 78649947577     PISSN: 0263323X     EISSN: 14676478     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2010.00525.x     Document Type: Article

References (102)

1. E.B. v. France (App. No. 43546/02) (22 January 2008).
2. The most recent illustration being the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (ch. 22), ss. 43, 42, 54.
3. L.D. Wardle, 'The Potential Impact of Homosexual Parenting on Children' (1997) University of Illinois Law Rev. 833, 852, 855, 859, 863., at
4. See R. Green, 'Transsexual Legal Rights in the United States and United Kingdom: Employment, Medical Treatment, and Civil Status' (2010) 39 Archives of Sexual Behaviour 153-60; R. Green, 'Transsexuals' Children' (1998) 2 International J. of Transgenderism.
5. Wardle, op. cit., n. 3, p. 852.
6. S. Callahan, 'Gays, Lesbians and the Use of Alternate Reproductive Technologies' in Feminism and Families, ed. H. Nelson (1997) 188.
7. X, Y and Z v. UK (App. no. 21830/93), 24 EHRR (1997) 143.
8. Goodwin v. UK (App. no. 28957/95) (2002) 35 EHHR 447, para. 90.
9. This qualification stems from an awareness that the ECHR right to found a family might be read as being conditional upon marriage - a construction that, however, the text of Article 12 does not mandate.
10. Salgueiro Da Silva Mouta v. Portugal (App. no. 33290/96) (2001) 31 EHRR 47. For a discussion, see R. Wintemute, 'Strasbourg to the Rescue? Same-Sex Partners and Parents Under the European Convention' in Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partnerships: A Study of National, European and International Law, eds. R. Wintemute and M. Andenæs (2001) 719-20.
11. Fretté v. France (2002) 38 EHRR 21.
12. Support for the proposition that Article 8 'family life' applies not just to individual LGBT parents but also same-sex couples and their children can be found in the House of Lords decision M v. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2006] UKHL 11, [2006] 2 A.C. 91, paras. 87, 1 and 112. There is little doubt that the European Court would agree with this proposition, given its recent recognition that same-sex couples enjoy 'family life' for the purposes of Article 8 in Schalk and Kopf v. Austria (App. no. 30141/04) (24 June 2010). Early Strasbourg jurisprudence was to the contrary effect (see U. Kilkelly, The Child and the European Convention on Human Rights (1999) 195).
13. For a discussion, see D. Fottrell, 'When Is Discrimination Non-Discriminatory?' (2002) 152 New Law J. 721.
14. Fretté v France (App. no. 36515/97) (2004) 38 EHRR 21, paras. 42-43 (Judge Kǔris).
15. R. Wintemute, 'L'Adoption, le Future Parents Gays et Lesbiennes et la Convention Européenne' in Citoyenneté, Discrimination et Préférence Sexuelle: L'État d'un Débat, ed. V. Martens (2003) 58-60.
16. EB v. France (App. no. 43546/02) (22 January 2008).
17. A. Chemin, 'Une Homosexuelle se Voit Refuser une Adoption pour la Deuxième Fois'Le Monde (4 February 2009).
18. L. Daussy, 'Feu Vert à l'Adoption pour une Homosexuelle Vivant en Couple'Le Figaro (10 November 2009).
19. 'La Place du Beau-Parent Repensée en Fonction de l'Intéret de l'Enfant'La Croix (7 October 2009).
20. The Court of Cassation is the final appellate court on civil and criminal matters, hearing appeals exclusively on points of law or procedure. It can also make declarations on complex or novel points of law.
21. 04-17.090, Arret n 652 du 24 février 2006, Cour de cassation - Première chambre civile.
22. 04-15.676 Arret n 221 du 20 février 2007, Cour de cassation - Première chambre civile; 06-15.647 Arret n 224 du 20 février 2007, Cour de cassation - Premiere chambre civile.
23. Code Civile, art. 365.
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26. The ECHR applies to French Polynesia: Piermont v. France (App. no. 15773/89) (27 April 1995).
27. R.I. Levy, Tahitians: Mind and Experience in the Society Islands (1973) 475.
28. R. Lowie, 'Adoption' in Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, eds. E.A. Seligman and A. Johnson (1933) 459, quoted in J. Terrell and J. Modell, 'Anthropology and Adoption' (1994) 96 Am. Anthropologist 155, at 157.
29. D.A. Elliston, 'Geographies of Gender and Politics: The Place of Difference in Polynesian Nationalism' (2000) 15(2) Cultural Anthropology 171, at 186.
30. A. Hooper, 'Adoption in the Society Islands'in Adoption in Eastern Oceania, ed. V. Carroll (1970) 52.
31. Levy, op. cit., n. 31, p. 7.
32. Hooper, op. cit., n. 34, p. 69; D.M. Scotti, 'D'un Monde à l'Autre? Quelques Questions à propos d'Adoption Traditionnelle' (2008) at <> 1.
33. Compare R. Feinberg, 'What is Polynesian Kinship All About?' (1981) 20 Ethnology 115, at 128.
34. Hooper, op. cit., n. 34, p. 69; Levy, op. cit., n. 31, p. 479.
35. Hooper, id, p. 61.
36. Hooper, op. cit., n. 34, p. 59.
37. Levy, op. cit., n. 31, p. 478.
38. Hooper, op. cit., n. 34, p. 59; see, also, Hanson, op. cit., n. 40, pp. 148-9.
39. Levy, op. cit., n. 31, p. 478; Levy, op. cit., n. 40, p. 77.
40. J.-V. de Monleon, 'L'Adoption en Polynésie Française et le Metropolitains: De la Stupéfaction à la Partecipation' in De l'Adoption: Des Pratiques de Filiation Différentes, ed. I. Leblic, 49, (2004) at 61.
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42. J. Ritchie and J. Ritchie, 'Socialization and Character Development' in Development in Polynesian Ethnology, eds. A. Howard and E. Borofsky (1989) 95, at 110; see, also, G. Biddle, Tahitian Journal (1968) 61.
43. See, also, Levy, op. cit., n. 31, p. 456.
44. T.S. Weisner and R. Gallimore, 'My Brother's Keeper: Child and Sibling Caretaking', 18 Current Anthropology (1977) 169.
45. Ritchie and Ritchie, op. cit., n. 49, p. 112.
46. J. Ritchie and J. Ritchie, Growing up in Polynesia (1979) 64-5.
47. Levy, op. cit., n. 31, pp. 453-4; see, also, Biddle, op. cit., n. 49, p. 62; Hanson, op. cit., n. 40, pp. 149-50 (reporting that it is faamu children who decide whether to stay with faamu parents in Rapa).
48. W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches: Society Islands, Tubuai Islands, and New Zealand (1969) 82-3.
49. Levy, op. cit., n. 31, pp. 447-8.
50. Ellis, op. cit., n. 55, p. 205.
51. Ritchie and Ritchie, op. cit., n. 49, pp. 122-3.
52. D.A. Elliston, 'Negotiating Transnational Sexual Economies: Female Mahu and Same-Sex Sexuality in "Tahiti and her Islands"' in Female Desires: Same-Sex Relations and Transgender Practices Across Cultures, ed. E. Blackwood and S. Wieringa, 230 (1999) at 236-7.
53. Although there is some mention of it in A. Matzner, O Au No Keia: Voices from Hawaii's Mahu and Transgender Communities (2001) at 221, 45.
54. 'Mahu' also applies to female-bodied transgender people (Elliston, op. cit., n. 59, p. 235), but male-bodied mahu are the paradigmatic case.
55. N. Besnier, 'Polynesian Gender Liminality through Time and Space' in Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History, ed. G. Herdt (1994) 285.
56. Levy, op. cit., n. 31, pp. 128-40.
57. Besnier, op. cit., n. 62, pp. 311-13.
58. Elliston, op. cit., n. 59, pp. 236-9.
59. D.L. Oliver, Ancient Tahitian Society (1974) 370-3; Besnier, op. cit., n. 62, p. 290; Levy, op. cit., n. 31, pp. 132, 366; S. O' Murray, Pacific Homosexualities (2002) 107-8; Ellis, op. cit., n. 55, pp. 182, 217; D.L. Oliver, 'Friendship Pacts in Ancient Tahiti' in Polynesian Culture History: Essays in Honor of Kenneth P. Emory, eds. G.A. Highland et al, 439,. (1967) at 448.
60. Elliston, op. cit., n. 59, pp. 239-44.
61. B. Robins, 'Gay Adoption Ban to Stay'Sydney Morning Herald, 8 January 2010.
62. 'Same-Sex Marriage Law Backed in Portugal's Parliament'BBC News, 8 January 2010, at <>.
63. Levy, op. cit., n. 31, pp. 234, 236; Elliston, op. cit., n. 33, p. 199.
64. Wardle, op. cit., n. 3.
65. Relevantly, the early missionaries deplored the fact that childrearing was not seen as 'the proper department of the female': Ellis, op. cit., n. 55, p. 294.
66. M. Strathern, 'Introduction: A Question of Context' in Technologies of Procreation: Kinship in the Age of Assisted Conception, eds. J. Edwards et al, 9,. (1999) at 23-4.
67. Levy, op. cit., n. 31, pp. 484-5.
68. M. O'Collins, 'The Influence of Western Adoption Laws on Customary Adoption in the Third World' in Adoption: Essays in Social Policy, Law, and Sociology, ed. P. Bean, 288, (1984) at 298.
69. Code Civil, art. 390 ff.
70. Loi Organique No. 2004-192 du 27 Fevrier 2004 Portant Statut D 'autonomic De La Polynesie Francaise.
71. Compare A. Matzner, '"Transgender, queens, mahu, whatever": An Oral History from Hawai'i' (2001) 6 Intersections, para. 10, at <>.
72. 'Les Vahine Veulent les Pacs'La Dépeche, 15 April 2008.
73. Monleon, op. cit., n. 45, p. 63.
74. M.-N. Charles, 'Le Rǒle de la Possession d'État dans la Filiation "fa'a'amu" en Polynésie Française' (1995) 30-31 Droit et Société 445, at 449.
75. Indeed, where the faamu adoption has not been legalized, even non-mahu faamu parents are caught in a limbo of legal uncertainty. Charles, id.
76. Guardians do not become 'parents', act only within limits defined by law, and under the supervision, and in some cases only with the consent, of other organs. Code Civil, arts. 395, 406, 417, 420, 449, 450-71.
77. J. McCullock, Black Soul, White Artifact: Fanon 's Clinical Psychology and Social Theory (1983) 121.
78. H. Alavi, 'The State in Postcolonial Societies: Pakistan and Bangladesh' (1972) 74 New Left Rev. 59, at 60, quoted in McCullock, id., p. 196.
79. French Constitution 1958, arts. 73(4), 74(2). Loi Organique N 2004-192 du 27 Fevrier 2004 Portant Statut D'autonomic De La Polynesie Francaise, art. 14.
80. L. Althusser, 'Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes Toward an Investigation' in Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (2001).
81. R. Siltala, A Theory of Precedent: From Analytical Positivism to a Post-Analytical Philosophy of Law (2000) 4.
82. J. Bell et al. Principles of French Law (2008) 30-1; M. Ancel, 'Case Law in France' (1934) 16 J. of Comparative Legislation and International Law 1.
83. F. Schauer, 'Authority and Authorities' (2008) 94 Virginia Law Rev. 1931, at 1956-7.
84. Compare id., p. 1945.
85. It is possible to reach the same conclusion even from a slightly different perspective, one that puts less emphasis on the fact that the French Polynesian judiciary is in fact the French judiciary - in the sense that it is institutionally at one with it. In particular just as adopting another country's legislation may enhance the legitimacy of the political institutions of the importing country (J.M. Miller, 'A Typology of Legal Transplants: Using Sociology, Legal History and Argentinian Examples to Explain the Transplant Process' (2003) 51 Am. J. of Comparative Law 839, at 854-9), so it seems clear that decision-makers appropriating interpretive approaches adopted elsewhere may consolidate their own legitimacy by capitalizing on the authority of those from whom they borrow. Furthermore, if treating an optional (that is, not binding) authority as an authority is, at least in part, a function of the decision-maker being 'persuaded that the optional source is more likely reliable than the selector herself (Schauer, id., p. 1949), deference to the outcomes of similar cases in metropolitan France might be even more likely on the part of French Polynesian decision-makers whose psychic organization has been marked by the experience of colonialism (F. Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1967)).
86. S.B. Burman, 'Symbolic Dimensions of the Enforcement of Law' (1976) 3 Brit. J. of Law and Society 204.
87. D.M. Provencher, Queer French: Globalization, Language and Sexual Citizenship in France (2007) 120-4.
88. G. Teubner, 'Legal Irritants: Good Faith in British Law or How Unifying Law Ends Up in New Divergencies', 61 Modern Law Rev. 11. (1998)
89. See J. Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action: System and Lifeworld: A Critique of Functionalist Reason (1987) 356-73.
90. M.N. Charles, 'Pour une Adoption sans Rupture de Filiation' (2008) 146/2 Informations Sociales 135, quoted in Scotti, op. cit., n. 36, p. 4.
91. P. Ottino, 'Adoption on a Rangiroa Atoll, Tuamotu Archipelago' in Carroll (ed.), op. cit., n. 34, pp. 110-11.
92. Elliston, op. cit., n. 33, p. 186.
93. D. Versini, Rapport de la Défenseure des enfants au Comité des droits de l'enfant des Nations Unies (December 2008) at <> 46.
94. The regulation of the procedural aspects of adoption falls within the area of l'aide sociale à l'enfance, which, as the Conseil d'Etat clarified in 1997, has not been reserved for the competence of France. M.N. Charles-Capogna, 'L'Adoption des Enfants Polynesiens'Association des Juristes de la Polynésie Francaise, 4 May 2006, at <>.
95. Versini, op. cit., n. 104, p. 47.
96. D. Cooper, 'An Engaged State: Sexuality, Governance, and the Potential for Change', 20 J. of Law and Society 257, (1993) at 268-72.
97. Levy, op. cit., n. 31, p. 486.
98. C. Smart, Feminism and the Power of Law (1989) 4-14.
99. Levy, op. cit., n. 31, p. 239.
100. Terrell and Modell, op. cit., n. 32, pp. 159-60.
101. C. Stychin, Law's Desire (1995) 20-23.
102. J. Butler, 'Is Kinship Always Already Heterosexual?' (2002) 13 differences: A Journal of Feminist and Cultural Studies 14, at 29-38.