More and more often same-sex couples go before national and international judges (and also quasi-jurisdictional bodies) protesting about the lack of recognition of their rights. The nature of their complaints clearly depends both on the legal order at stake and on the legal recognition of same-sex couples already accorded. Thus, the book pursues two main objectives. First, considering that jurisdictions are becoming progressively more relevant in protecting same-sex couples' rights, the book aims to provide a detailed analysis of national, international and supranational case-law and offers readers some reflections on judicial activism in this context. Secondly, the book investigates the role of the judiciary when confronted with the protection of "new" fundamental rights, taking into account the dialogical and dialectical relationship with the legislative power, in terms of encouragement to enact new laws or to modify them