Couples have four family name options when they marry in Switzerland, but the European Court may change this
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss government has been told by the European Court of Human Rights to pay a Swiss-Hungarian couple €10,000 in damages and reimburse them €4,515 in legal costs for discrimination against dual national couples. The two have been fighting Swiss marriage laws that prevented both of them from keeping their original family names.
The couple, who live in canton Bern, took their case to the European Court after a Swiss high court refused to overturn a ruling by the canton. The European court’s decision in the case, Losonci Rose and Rose v. Switzerland, is not final, but Switzerland has not said if it will appeal.
The man is Hungarian and the woman has Swiss and French nationalities. Both are over age 55. They argued that changing their names in France and Hungary would be too difficult, and she also argued that as a senior administrator in the Swiss federal government she is well known under the name she had before her marriage, so she should not be required to change her name. The two decided that he would take her name but the law stipulates that it must be added after his own. She kept her name, unchanged, when they married in 2003.
Problems arose when he tried to use the name Losonci alone.
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