A same-sex marriage was recognised by a court in December 2016. The couple, two men who had originally married in Sweden but now live in Estonia, had their marriage officially registered in late January 2017. Initially, a court in Harju County refused to register their marriage, but the couple appealed the decision. In December, the Tallinn Circuit Court ruled that the marriage must be entered into the Estonian population register. Much uncertainty followed the ruling, concerning whether the ruling applied universally to all couples or only to this specific case. According to several Estonian jurists and lawyers, whether a same-sex marriage will be recognized must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Others argue that the "Private International Law Act" (), the law which applies when the validity of foreign marriages needs to be assessed, does not explicitly prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages.