Cohabitants and the law: recent European reforms

Abstract

In the last few years new laws covering the cohabitation of unmarried mixed-sex and/or of same-sex couples have come into force or at least been under discussion in many European countries. Following a brief look at the laws in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, this article starts with a discussion of the Dutch law of 1998 and the German draft law on registered partnerships of same-sex couples, which is currently under discussion; both these are characterized in particular by the possibility of ending the partnership by a divorce-type procedure. One point of difference is that according to the Dutch law such a registered partnership is also open to mixed-sex couples, which is not provided for by the legislation projected in Germany. By comparison, the French PACS ruling is aimed mainly at bringing about changes in the tax and social security situation, while allowing each partner the option of terminating the partnership unilaterally. So far, the Spanish regions of Catalonia and Aragon are the only parts of Southern Europe that have legal rulings in place. These have significance primarily for the relationship of the partners to each other, especially in the case of a separation, which can be implemented in these regions too by either partner unilaterally.They have not, however, provided for any changes to tax, social security and labour legislation, because of the way that legal competencies in such matters are distributed in the Spanish regions. It is striking that this legislation is applicable in the case of mixed-sex cohabiting couples either on registration or automatically after two years' cohabitation, while in Catalonia same-sex couples are required to register their partnership.