Legal and social aspects of the same sex person's marriage contracting

Visuomenės santykių sistemoje šeimos santykiai užima svarbią vietą. Šeima yra pirminė visuomenės ląstelė ir atlieka jaunosios kartos auklėjimo, šeimos narių materialinės bei moralinės savitarpio paramos funkcijas. Tradicinė šeima - vyro ir moters bendro gyvenimo sąjunga, tačiau vis dažniau prabylama apie tos pačios lyties santuokų registravimą. Straipsnyje kompleksiškai nagrinėjamos tos pačios lyties asmenų santuokos sudarymo problemos bei pasekmės, mėginama atskleisti šio reiškinio prigimtį ir vietą teisės sistemoje bei santykį su nacionaline teise. Daigiausiai dėmesio skiriama tos pačios lyties asmenų santuokos sudarymo problematikai, aptariant užsienio teismų praktiką.Marriage is very important institute, it is characteristic feature of every society. However social and legal meaning of marriage differs from society to society and alters over time. Especially we can see this from the perspective of human rights movement which has great impact on marriage institution and influences its change. It influenced the changes in attitudes toward woman's role in the family and towards marriages between different race persons. Now it helps to change attitudes toward homosexuals and their rights, which include right to marry. The aim of this work is to answer the question whether the marriage between same-sex persons is possible, also to analyze whether the prohibition of such marriage violates human rights. Marriage enacted in laws is also called traditional marriage. Its validity depends on meeting of certain terms one of which is opposite-sex requirement. This requirement was justified on the grounds of social interests such as procreation and child rearing. On the other hand the marriage is very important human right protected by laws and international treaties, and it can be restricted only by reasonable basis. Courts practice and tendencies in family law show that homosexuality is not the reason to prohibit same-sex persons to marry. This prohibition violates human rights such as right to marry and found a family, right to be treated equally and right to have private life. To avoid violation of human rights countries singed several international treaties, which prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. This problem is also solved at national level. Netherlands became the first (and still the one) country in the world which changed concept of traditional marriage and included in it same-sex partners as well, effect of such change is allowance for same-sex partners to marry. Other countries enacted laws establishing a parallel type of marriage for same-sex persons, which includes most of the traditional marriage benefits. Lithuanian laws prohibit same-sex marriage. However the analysis of human rights changes and other countries practice let us make a conclusion that such prohibition violates Lithuanian Constitution which also includes such human rights as right to marry, right not to be discriminated and right to privacy. Besides, Lithuania as European country actively seeking membership in European Union will have to make steps solving same-sex marriage problem - changing concept of marriage or offering parallel institute for same-sex couples