Abstract
Since 1998, many of Spain's regional authorities have introduced laws which give some recognition to co-habitation outside marriage, as has happened in most of Europe. At the same time we can observe that pattern of marriage in Spain is changing very quickly. This present study analyses the content that the legislator has wanted to give to expressions like «de facto unions» or «stable couples» and compares them with civil marriage. The article also seeks to demonstrate the current variety within canon law which is applicable to those who contract marriage in the new multicultural and multi-religious context of Spain, taking into account the diversity of norms which the two codes -the CIC and the CCEO-offer, and the juridical and confessional diversity of those who contract marriage. On this basis, the article studies both the formal canonical legitimacy of have recourse to the types of «couple» recognized in the light of their confessional situation, and also the similarity/dissimilarity of these unions with the forma sacramenti of marriage. Finally, the author looks at the possibility of canonically rectifying (convalidation and sanation) the unions of these couples in order to effect a marriage. This study restores the distinction between invalid marriages and non-existent marriages, conceding however that there is also a difference between «recognized civil unions» and simple «de facto unions».
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