Strasbourg Has Spoken, Herbert

The European Court of Human Rights ruled, back in April, that fucking your sister is not a protected right under Article 8 of the Convention. The decision became legally binding in October, which means a man from Leipzig found himself definitively out of arguments.

The case had been running for a while. The man and his female counterpart had been sleeping together for years, with the inconvenience of periodic prison sentences doing little to diminish his enthusiasm. Four children came out of the arrangement; two have disabilities, which is information the biology curriculum covers in the relevant unit. They’re now separated, which the courts apparently consider a partial victory.

His lawyer confirmed to a German news magazine that his client’s sexual drive was so exceptional that he intended to drag the case before the Grand Chamber. I’m not exactly sure what the Grand Chamber is, but the name suggests it’s where Europe’s most committed litigants eventually end up.

I never had siblings, so certain developmental complications stayed off the table for me. I have, however, watched enough internet video to have a working grasp of the genre’s conventions—the staging, the faux-reluctance, the very particular quality of the performances. And I’ll say with reasonable confidence that the Leipzig reality almost certainly didn’t resemble any of that. Those are aspirational documents.

The part that genuinely baffles me isn’t the desire—people want all kinds of things—it’s the sustained litigating. At some point you have to ask whether the legal energy wouldn’t be better directed elsewhere. Apparently not. The Grand Chamber awaits. Good luck to everyone involved, except possibly the children.