CARAS Webinar: Close Relationships in the Eye of the Law; Saturday, January 21, 2023
Close Relationships in the Eye of the Law
Presenter: Ellika Sevelin, Ph.D. [Jur.Dr.]
Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Time: noon-2 pm Pacific / 3-5 pm Eastern / 8-10pm GMT (London) / 9-11pm Central Europe (Stockholm, Prague, Berlin) - 2 hours
To register for this webinar, please visit: https://forms.gle/dkfUkLxCzPR5X5yh7
Attendees may earn 2 Continuing Education (CE) credits
Cost: Attendance is free for all CARAS subscribers.
Attendance with CE credit is free for CARAS Professional and Student subscribers, and $40 for others.
Attendance without CE credit for non-subscribers is $25
Pre-registration is required. Registration will close at 3pm (U.S. Pacific)/6pm (U.S. Eastern) on Friday, January 20, 2023. Please register early!
Webinar Abstract
Family law regulates close relationships such as parenthood or marriage. It is hardly surprising that family law reproduces the norm for relationships; its formal purpose is promotion and support of certain kinds of relationships.
In this webinar, we will examine how the law perceives relationships that fall outside of this normative framework. In Sweden the vague term “person in a close relationship” is used in, for example, tax law, procedural law, and public registration law. Whether the law recognizes a relationship as being close can affect legal matters such as tax, duty to witness, and country of residency.
We will particularly focus on how the hetero- and mono-normative romantic couple serves as the tacit standard against which other relationships are measured. We will discuss what consequences this has for relationships outside of the norm, including consensual non-monogamous relationships, and whether or not the law recognizes them. The webinar will use examples from Swedish law but its implications are applicable to other legal systems as well.
The webinar will be relevant to clinicians, scholars, and others interested in how consensual non-monogamous and other non-normative relationships found in alternative sexuality communities are framed in law in Sweden, as well as other legal jurisdictions internationally.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:
Describe heteronormativity and mono-normativity and how these concepts are used to critically analyze the legal categorization of relationships.
Describe the process of partial inclusion and its effect on minoritized groups
Analyze specific legal cases that involve non-normative relationships and the effect of non-normativity on the outcome of the case.
Presentation Content Level: Intermediate (basic knowledge of alternative sexualities, including Consensual Non-Monogamy (CNM), Kink/BDSM, is presupposed)
About the Presenter
Ellika Sevelin, Ph.D. [Jur.Dr], is an assistant professor in law and philosophy at the Law faculty of Lund University, Sweden. She is interested in how society, including sexualities, is represented in law, and the normative assumptions, effects, and conflicts generated by the law when applied to non-normative groups in a diverse society. Her research addresses jurisprudence, law and philosophy, theory of evidence, tax law and conceptual analysis of law. In 2017 she defended her thesis, Facts in the Law.
References
Carlström, C., & Andersson, C. (2019). Living Outside Protocol: Polyamorous Orientations, Bodies, and Queer Temporalities. Sexuality & Culture, 23(4), 1315-1331. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-019-09621-7 [Open Access]
Gordon-Orr, R. (2021). Mononormativity and Related Normative Bias in the UK Immigration System: The Experience of LGBTQ+ Asylum Seekers. Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2021.659003 [Open Access]
Halberstam, J. (2003). What’s That Smell? Queer Temporalities and Subcultural Lives. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 6(3), 313-333. https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779030063005 [Open access version: https://sfonline.barnard.edu/ps/printjha.htm ]
Klesse, C. (2016). Marriage, Law and Polyamory. Rebutting Mononormativity With Sexual Orientation Discourse. Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 6(6), 1348-1376. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2891035 [Open Access]
Klesse, C. (2018). Theorizing Multi-Partner Relationships and Sexualities–Recent Work on Non-Monogamy and Polyamory. Sexualities, 21(7), 1109-1124. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460717701691 [Open Access version: https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/618236/1/KLESSE%20(002)%20CK%202502AKKcop.pdf ]
Sandbakken, E. M., Skrautvol, A., & Madsen, O. J. (2022). ‘It’s My Definition of a Relationship, Even Though it Doesn’t Fit Yours’: Living in Polyamorous Relationships in a Mononormative Culture. Psychology & Sexuality, 4, 1054-1067. https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2021.1982755
For information about this webinar, please visit (this page): https://www.carasresearch.org/latest-news/webinar-jan2023
About the CARAS Education Program
CARAS is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CARAS maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
For more information about the CARAS Education Program, including CE policies and procedures, please visit https://www.carasresearch.org/apa-continuing-education