Tagged / cohabitation rights

Cohabitating Partners – rights (inquiry)

The Women and Equalities Committee have launched a new inquiry – The Rights of Cohabiting Partners | Deadline for evidence submission: Monday 5 July 2021

Information on the scope of the inquiry

Cohabiting couples make up the fastest growing type of family, with over 3.4 million couples cohabiting in England or Wales. Couples who cohabit currently have less legal protection than those who are married or in a civil partnership in the event of death or separation. Despite this, there is a widespread perception that cohabiting couples have similar or identical rights to those who are married or in a civil partnership.

In 2007, the Law Commission published a report on the financial consequences of the breakdown of cohabitant relationships and recommended law reform. Since then, in 2011, the Coalition Government decided not to take forward the recommendations, and there has been little progress in this area since. Certain legal professionals have continued to call for greater protection under the law for cohabiting couples.

The Committee will examine what legal protection for cohabiting couples could look like and how this might be introduced. We welcome written evidence submissions from individuals, legal practitioners and organisations.

The Committee is inviting written evidence but cannot accept evidence that discusses on-going or active court cases.

Key questions for the inquiry are:
  • Should there be a legal definition of cohabitation and, if so, what should it be?
  • What legislative changes, if any, are needed to better protect the rights of cohabiting partners in the event of death or separation?
  • What equalities issues are raised by the lack of legal protection for those in cohabiting relationships?
  • Should legal changes be made to better provide for the children of cohabiting partners?
  • Should cohabiting partners have the same rights as those who are married or in a civil partnership?
  • Are there examples of good practice in relation to the rights of cohabiting partners in the UK or internationally that the Government should seek emulate in England and Wales?

You can submit evidence to this inquiry until Sunday 4 July. Please inform and engage with BU’s policy team before submitting evidence to the inquiry. You can contact Jane and Sarah on policy@bournemouth.ac.uk

New Year’s Eve Celebrations Without the Fizz? New Publication in BULR by Martine Hardwick

Fusion themes, open access, PG research, REF Subjects, student research

Martine Hardwick, Lecturer in Law and PhD Candidate in the Department of Humanities and Law, has published a timely commentary in the Bournemouth University Law Review looking ahead to a change in the law on 31 December 2019. On this date, opposite sex couples will finally be able to register their civil partnerships – which until now has been reserved for same sex couples.

However, this change in the law raises important questions for cohabiting couples. Despite longing for more protection and fairness from the law, co-habiting couples will not be presented with the opportunity as heterosexual couples to celebrate on New Year’s Eve. Instead, they will still be bound by the strict rules of formation and dissolution which mirror those of marriage.

Questioning whether the UK has missed an opportunity to provide more rights for cohabiting couples and highlighting a solution drawn from France in the form of Pacte Civil de Solidarité (PACS), Martine argues that learning lessons from the French legal system has to be the way forward in giving cohabitants protection while respecting their autonomy.

You can read Martine Hardwick’s full article here.