Matrimonial Property: Legal Developments and Social Trends

Abstract

Family law confers legal rights and duties upon ‘family’ members, which may, at times, conflict with the exercise of their individual rights.1 A tension between competing rights can be seen in the context of matrimonial property law, a focus of Lecture XI in Dicey’s Law and Opinion in England during the 19th Century. The tension in this context has generally been between the property rights of individuals and the extent to which these rights are affected by marriage. Such questions are not simply of historical interest, however, as the legal regulation of matrimonial property has yet to be resolved satisfactorily. In the twenty-first century there is an added dimension. Revolutionary changes in family formation means that marriage can no longer be said to be the social norm. The question, therefore, is no longer confined to ‘How does marriage affect individual property rights?’ What must also be asked is ‘How does cohabitation and family membership generally, affect the property rights of the individuals involved in the familial relationship?’ This chapter considers how the courts and the legislature respectively have struggled in determining the ownership of (quasi)-matrimonial property and how their responses have been informed by contemporary societal trends.KeywordsDomestic LabourUnmarried CohabitantCapital DistributionProperty DisputeMatrimonial PropertyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.