IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v52y2014i3p632-649.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Of Gay Rights and Christmas Ornaments: The Political History of Sexual Orientation Non-discrimination in the Treaty of Amsterdam

Author

Listed:
  • Martijn Mos

Abstract

This article asks why sexual orientation was included in the anti-discrimination clause of the Treaty of Amsterdam (Article 13) in the absence of active support within the Council of Ministers and even though few Member States had established it as protected ground prior to the intergovernmental conference. A detailed historical analysis reveals how the European Parliament (EP) gradually developed into the hub of a transnational advocacy network that promoted gay rights to the European Commission and the Council. The dynamics of the intergovernmental conference enabled the EP to introduce sexual orientation into the treaty-making process, while the use of naming-and-shaming tactics vis-à-vis the Dutch Presidency secured the ground's final inclusion. This political history has theoretical implications since it presents a challenge to extant liberal intergovernmentalist and institutionalist analyses of the Amsterdam Treaty and suggests that the EP should be afforded more attention by neofunctionalist scholars.

Suggested Citation

  • Martijn Mos, 2014. "Of Gay Rights and Christmas Ornaments: The Political History of Sexual Orientation Non-discrimination in the Treaty of Amsterdam," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 632-649, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:52:y:2014:i:3:p:632-649
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/jcms.12094
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew Moravcsik & Kalypso Nicolaïdis, 1999. "Explaining the Treaty of Amsterdam: Interests, Influence, Institutions," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 59-85, March.
    2. Finnemore, Martha & Sikkink, Kathryn, 1998. "International Norm Dynamics and Political Change," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(4), pages 887-917, October.
    3. Slapin, Jonathan B., 2008. "Bargaining Power at Europe's Intergovernmental Conferences: Testing Institutional and Intergovernmental Theories," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(1), pages 131-162, January.
    4. Deborah Mabbett, 2005. "The Development of Rights‐based Social Policy in the European Union: The Example of Disability Rights," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 97-120, March.
    5. Nadelmann, Ethan A., 1990. "Global prohibition regimes: the evolution of norms in international society," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(4), pages 479-526, October.
    6. Alter, Karen J., 1998. "Who Are the “Masters of the Treaty”?: European Governments and the European Court of Justice," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(1), pages 121-147, January.
    7. Burley, Anne-Marie & Mattli, Walter, 1993. "Europe Before the Court: A Political Theory of Legal Integration," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(1), pages 41-76, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:48:y:2010:i::p:1307-1327 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Nicole Lindstrom, 2010. "Service Liberalization in the Enlarged EU: A Race to the Bottom or the Emergence of Transnational Political Conflict?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(5), pages 1307-1327, November.
    3. Holzscheiter, Anna & Bahr, Thurid & Pantzerhielm, Laura, 2016. "Emerging Governance Architectures in Global Health: Do Metagovernance Norms Explain Inter-Organisational Convergence?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4(3), pages 5-19.
    4. Muel Kaptein, 2019. "The Moral Entrepreneur: A New Component of Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 1135-1150, June.
    5. Isao Sakaguchi, 2013. "The roles of activist NGOs in the development and transformation of IWC regime: the interaction of norms and power," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 3(2), pages 194-208, June.
    6. Mitchell, Ronald B., 2011. "Transparency for governance: The mechanisms and effectiveness of disclosure-based and education-based transparency policies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1882-1890, September.
    7. Höpner, Martin & Schäfer, Armin, 2007. "A New Phase of European Integration: Organized Capitalisms in Post-Ricardian Europe," MPIfG Discussion Paper 07/4, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    8. Susanne K. Schmidt, 2000. "Only an Agenda Setter?," European Union Politics, , vol. 1(1), pages 37-61, February.
    9. Bargstädt, Dorothee, 2017. "Freiwillige Selbstverpflichtung von Unternehmen in Antikorruptionsinitiativen: Der Einfluss des nationalen Kontextes auf internationales Engagement am Beispiel chinesischer und indischer Unternehmen," PIPE - Papers on International Political Economy 28/2017, Free University Berlin, Center for International Political Economy.
    10. Grimmel, Andreas, 2011. "Politics in robes? The European Court of Justice and the myth of judicial activism," Discussion Papers 2/11, Europa-Kolleg Hamburg, Institute for European Integration.
    11. Tanja A. Börzel, 2011. "Comparative Regionalism - A New Research Agenda," KFG Working Papers p0028, Free University Berlin.
    12. Schreinermacher, Björn, 2014. "Vom EuGH-Urteil zur Richtlinie: Wie die EU-Mitgliedstaaten über die Kodifizierung europäischer Rechtsprechung entscheiden," TranState Working Papers 184, University of Bremen, Collaborative Research Center 597: Transformations of the State.
    13. Adam Moe Fejerskov, 2018. "Development as resistance and translation: Remaking norms and ideas of the Gates Foundation," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 18(2), pages 126-143, April.
    14. Arne Niemann, 2006. "Explaining visa, asylum and immigration policy Treaty revision: insights from a revised neofunctionalist framework," The Constitutionalism Web-Papers p0005, University of Hamburg, Faculty for Economics and Social Sciences, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science.
    15. Clifford J. Carrubba, 2003. "The European Court of Justice, Democracy, and Enlargement," European Union Politics, , vol. 4(1), pages 75-100, March.
    16. Cupać, Jelena & Ebetürk, Irem, 2022. "Competitive mimicry: The socialization of antifeminist NGOs into the United Nations," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 11(3), pages 379-400.
    17. Anna Holzscheiter & Thurid Bahr & Laura Pantzerhielm, 2016. "Emerging Governance Architectures in Global Health: Do Metagovernance Norms Explain Inter-Organisational Convergence?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(3), pages 5-19.
    18. José Luis Castro-Montero & Edwin Alblas & Arthur Dyevre & Nicolas Lampach, 2018. "The Court of Justice and treaty revision: A case of strategic leniency?," European Union Politics, , vol. 19(4), pages 570-596, December.
    19. Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde & Lars Engberg-Pedersen & Adam Moe Fejerskov, 2018. "Global norms and heterogeneous development organizations," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 18(2), pages 77-94, April.
    20. Junk, Julian & Blatter, Joachim, 2010. "Transnational attention, domestic agenda-setting and international agreement: Modeling necessary and sufficient conditions for media-driven humanitarian interventions [Transnationale Aufmerksamkeit," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Global Governance SP IV 2010-301, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    21. Clifford J. Carrubba & Matthew Gabel, 2005. "Do Governments Sway European Court of Justice Decision-making?: Evidence from Government Court Briefs," Working Papers 2005-06, University of Kentucky, Institute for Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:52:y:2014:i:3:p:632-649. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.