Elena Brodeala

• PhD
• European University Institute

This article analyses critically recent and potential developments in the surrogacy case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) by looking particularly at the question of male same-sex parenthood in light of two pending cases against Switzerland. Starting from the previous case law of the ECtHR on surrogacy and the pending Swiss cases, t...

This working paper aims to scrutinize the 1991 Constitution from the perspective of gender and sexuality. To contextualize the analysis, the paper first discusses the status of gender and sexuality in the previous constitutions of Romania. Then, the paper moves on to questions of gender and sexuality under Romania's current Constitution since its d...

Gender equality before the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’) is an underresearched and undertheorized topic.¹ This to some extent is not surprising given that the case law of the ECtHR on gender equality is not very rich. The book Courting Gender Justice: Russia, Turkey, and the European Court of Human Rights by Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom, Vale...

The question of gender equality before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)—one of the most powerful human rights bodies in Europe and beyond—is not only underresearched but, to the extent that it has been the subject of research, such research has mostly focused on understanding the status of women and women’s rights, leaving aside questions...

In December 2020, the Constitutional Court of Romania declared a ban on gender perspectives in education and research unconstitutional, holding, inter alia, that “sex” and “gender” are distinct concepts. At a time when gender equality and LGBT+ rights are under attack in many parts of the world, including in Eastern Europe, the Court affirmed the c...

This chapter explores some of the barriers to the application of non-discrimination law in Romania through the few gender discrimination cases from the country that have reached the ECtHR. Unlike the other contributions in this volume, this chapter does not focus on the national legislation on non-discrimination implementing EU law or on the nation...

The role of women in constitution-making in Central and Eastern Europe is an under-researched topic, as is the topic of women’s role in the transition of the region to democracy. Literature regarding women’s role in organizations involved in the collapse of communism such as the Solidarity Movement in Poland, or on women dissidents in Romania, does...

Book review published in European Law Review 2018, 43(3), 461-464

This article investigates the extent to which the Romanian Constitution has provided for adequate means to enhance women’s equal citizenship in its first twenty-five years of existence. Taking as its starting point Simone de Beauvoir’s thought, encompassed in the idea that gender inequality is derived from defining women as ‘the Others’ or as total...

Book review published in the European journal of legal studies, 2017, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 295-303

This article discusses the legal situation of assisted reproduction in Romania. It explains the main legal provisions in this field and how assisted reproduction came to be regulated in Romania. Moreover, the article also aims to illustrate some of the reasons that led to a relative lack of regulation in the domain of human reproduction in Romania...

This article explains what the impact of European integration was on women's political representation in Romania. This impact is particularly interesting for two reasons: firstly, because the European Union does not have competence in the electoral domain and cannot impose Member States any obligation to adopt measures to boost women's representati...

I was born, raised and I am currently living in post-communist Romania.