An article related to my doctoral research, ‘Individual adoption by non-heterosexuals and the order of family life in the European Court of Human Rights’ has been published in the Journal of Law and Society (2009, Winter Issue, vol. 36: 4). It analyses two cases from the European Court of Human Rights, Fretté v. France and E.B. v. France that deal with adoption by single non-heterosexual applicants. I look at these cases from a sociological perspective and place them in a framework of biological, legal, social and ‘symbolic’ (gendered) family relations.