The legal status of Turks in Germany

Turks in Germany constitute the single largest non-national group living in the member states of the European Union. This essay examines the legal dimensions of their entry, residence and integration in Germany during the 1990s up to 2002. The evidence shows that, despite long-term settlement patterns, Turks in Germany have not achieved a high level of formal inclusion. However, recent policy reforms have already gone some way to improving their situation, and the impact of planned reforms should equally ensure that this process continues in the future.

“Seismic cultural change?”: British media representations of same-sex ‘marriage’

The legal recognition of same-sex relationships is a contested terrain that has been hotly debated by feminists. This article provides a social constructionist analysis of the UK newspaper media coverage around the time of the introduction of the Civil Partnership Act (2004). In examining the 348 national newspaper coverage over a three month period (November 2005–January 2006) we highlight three prevalent, and conflicting, themes: ‘same-sex marriage becomes legal under the Civil Partnership Act’; ‘couples will not get full legal status’ and ‘marriage is a heterosexual business’. We discuss these media representations and argue that the heteronormativity of the coverage provided little space for more radical constructions of same-sex relationship recognition.

A fresh look at S.54(2)

Examines the operation of the provisions of the Law of Property Act 1925 s.54(2) containing an exception to the rule that a deed is required in order to create a valid legal lease and conferring full legal status to short-term letting agreements created by parol, focusing on the requirements that the lease must take effect in possession and must be at the best rent reasonably obtainable without fine. Calls for the former of these two requirements to be amended and the latter abolished on the ground that they give rise to unnecessary complexity in the law and, in the case of the latter, uncertainty.

Relationship status and identity construction in heterosexual women:A discourse analytic and personal construct study

This thesis reports the findings of three studies examining relationship status and identity construction in the talk of heterosexual women, from a feminist and social constructionist perspective. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 women in study 1 and 13 women for study 2, between the ages of twenty and eighty-seven, discussing their experiences of relationships. All interviews were transcribed and analysed using discourse analysis, by hand and using the Nudist 6 program. The resulting themes create distinct age-related marital status expectations. Unmarried women were aware they had to marry by a ‘certain age’ or face a ‘lonely spinsterhood’. Through marriage women gained a socially accepted position associated with responsibility for others, self-sacrifice, a home-focused lifestyle and relational identification. Divorce was constructed as the consequence of personal faults and poor relationship care, reassuring the married of their own control over their status. Older unmarried women were constructed as deviant and pitiable, occupying social purgatory as a result of transgressing these valued conventions. Study 3 used repertory grid tasks, with 33 women, analysing transcripts and notes alongside numerical data using Web Grid II internet analysis tool, to produce principle components maps demonstrating the relationships between relationship terms and statuses. This study illuminated the consistency with which women of different ages and status saw marriage as their ideal living situation and outlined the domestic responsibilities associated. Spinsters and single-again women were defined primarily by their lack of marriage and by loneliness. This highlighted the devalued position of older unmarried women. The results of these studies indicated a consistent set of age-related expectations of relationship status, acknowledged by women and reinforced by their families and friends, which render many unmarried women deviant and fail to acknowledge the potential variety of women’s ways of living.