EU free movement law and the legal recognition of same-sex relationships: the case for mutual recognition

This article seeks to examine the cross-border legal recognition of same-sex relationships in the EU. Although the Member States maintain an exclusive competence in the field of family law and, thus, it is up to them to determine whether they will provide a legal status to same-sex couples within their territory, they need to exercise their powers in that field in a way that does not violate EU law. This, it is suggested, requires that Member States mutually recognize the legal status of same-sex couples and do not treat same-sex couples worse than opposite-sex couples, if the basis of the differentiation is, merely, the (homosexual) sexual orientation of the two spouses/partners. Nonetheless, the current legal framework does not make it clear that Member States are under such an obligation. The main argument of the article, therefore, is that the EU must adopt a more hands-on approach towards this issue.

Conflicts of law and the mutual recognition of same-sex unions in the EU

My thesis uses legal arguments to demonstrate a requirement for recognition of same-sex marriages and registered partnerships between EU Member States. I draw on the US experience, where arguments for recognition of marriages void in some states previously arose in relation to interracial marriages. I show how there the issue of recognition today depends on conflicts of law and its interface with US constitutional freedoms against discrimination. I introduce the themes of the importance of domicile, the role of the public policy exception, vested rights, and relevant US constitutional freedoms. Recognition in the EU also depends on managing the tension between private international law and freedoms guaranteed by higher norms, in this case the EU Treaties and the European Convention on Human Rights. I set out the inconsistencies between various private international law systems and the problems this creates. Other difficulties are caused by the use of nationality as a connecting factor to determine personal capacity, and the overuse of the public policy exception. I argue that EU Law can constrain the use of conflicts law or public policy by any Member State where these are used to deny effect to same-sex unions validly formed elsewhere. I address the fact that family law falls only partly within Union competence, that existing EU Directives have had limited success at achieving full equality and that powers to implement new measures have not been used to their full potential. However, Treaty provisions outlawing discrimination on grounds of nationality can be interpreted so as to require recognition in many cases. Treaty citizenship rights can also be interpreted favourably to mandate recognition, once private international law is itself recognised as an obstacle to free movement. Finally, evolving interpretations of the European Convention on Human Rights may also support claims for cross-border recognition of existing relationships.

Domestic violence and the law in the Turks and Caicos Islands: directions for law reform

Includes bibliography

2013 Massachusetts Family Impact Seminar: Youth at Risk, Part 2

The youth of Massachusetts are of primary concern to legislators and citizens. This briefing report features three essays by experts — Fern Johnson, Deborah Frank, and Donna Haig Friedman — who focus on three aspects of children in need: children in foster care who need adoption, children who are hungry, and children who are homeless. Each report has further and more detailed suggestions for helping these children in need; below is a summary of the problems we face.

A Digest of English civil law /

Includes index.

A digest of English civil law,

v.1. General, by Edward Jenks.--v.2. (part 1) Law of contract (general) by R. W. Lee.--v.2. (part 2) Law of contract (particular contracts) by R. W. Lee.--v.2. (part 3) Law of quasi-contract and tort, by J. C. Miles.--v.3. Law of property, by Edward Jenks.--v.4. Family law, by W. M. Geldart. Succession, by W. S. Holdsworth.--v.5. Succession (cont'd.) by W. S. Holdsworth.

Orders for sale:the creditor and the family home : part one

This, the first part of a two-part article on the discretionary powers of the courts to order a sale of the family home at the request of a secured creditor, considers whether the enactment of the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 s.15 has led judicial decision making to favour the interests of the co-owner of the home. Reviews cases heard since the coming into force of the Act, looking at the factors taken into account when balancing the interests of the creditor and debtor, including the continued need to have a family home, the availability of other assets to pay off the debt, the size of the debt and the likelihood of repayment.

Orders for sale:the creditor and the family home : part 2

This, the second part of a two-part article on the discretionary powers of the courts to order a sale of the family home at the request of a secured creditor, continues the review begun in part one of common factors taken into account by the courts in post-1996 cases when balancing the interest of the creditor and debtor. Considers the availability of alternative accommodation, the health of the parties, the right to private and family life, the age of the parties, hardship a sale would cause other family members and delay on the part of the creditor in prosecution of proceedings to recover its debt.

The regulation of cohabitants in Scottish succession law

Ten years ago, cohabitants in Scotland had no statutory rights in respect of their deceased partner’s estate. Section 29 of the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 gave cohabitants the right to apply to the court for discretionary provision from their deceased partner’s intestate estate. This thesis examines the process of making such an application and the way that the provisions have been applied in practice. The juxtaposition of the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 and the existing rules for intestate succession in the Succession (Scotland) Act 1964 is considered, with particular focus on the subordination of cohabitants’ rights to the succession rights of a surviving spouse, and the negative impact that this may have on children. It is concluded that the current succession framework is incapable of protecting cohabitants and children in reconstituted families. Potential measures are considered to displace the traditional primacy of marital succession rights, and provide a fair and flexible system of succession law that is capable of dealing with complex family structures.

Communication in family court:financial remedy proceedings from the perspective of litigants in person

The article presents a rationale for communicative, conceptual, cognitive and procedural challenges experienced by litigants in person in financial remedy proceedings. The article also explores oscillation between written and spoken legal genres and narrative development strategies which litigants in person have to use throughout different stages (from the early stages of starting proceedings, filling in court forms and providing documentation, through the negotiation process to interaction in court). While legal professionals express themselves in paradigmatic legal mode influenced by legal acts and legislation, litigants in person tend to express themselves in narrative mode similar to everyday storytelling. The objective is to investigate obstacles litigants in person experience during the process originally designed by legal professionals for legal professionals. The article evaluates different options for empowering lay people involved in legal proceedings and argues for the need to provide more specific support for different stages of family proceedings.

Estimating the cost of contact for non-resident parents: A budget standards approach

Most Western countries have, for some time, provided income support and/or taxation relief to parents with children in their care. The significant amount of research into the costs of children to couple and sole parent households has been important in assessing and developing family support policies. Changing societal expectations about the level of involvement of fathers in child rearing activities has highlighted the need to understand the costs facing usually male non-resident parents in having contact with their children. The budget standards methodology is used in this paper to estimate the costs for non-resident parents exercising regular contact with their children. Costs of contact are found to be high. For contact with one child for 20 per cent of the year, costs of contact represent about 40 per cent of the costs of that same child in an intact couple household with a medium income and more than half of the costs of that child in a household with low income. Household infrastructure and transportation is the reason for high costs. One implication of this finding is that the total cost of children substantially increases when parents separate. The article discusses some policy implications of these findings. This research is of relevance to social security, taxation, family law and child support policies and administration.

Da responsabilidade civil por abandono afetivo

This study, in the Family Law area, aims to examine the civil liability for emotional distance from a multidisciplinary perspective. The work and reflection made thereunder tend to corroborate the cognizance that self-representation, sociability and the ability of future adults to define their life’s projects, depend, to a large extent, on the emotional stability and maturity that has been assured to them, as children, by the material and emotional care that has been provided to them by both parents. It is therefore crucial to tend to the feelings of loss and to the potential lack of self-esteem that the affective rupture with either parents may cause. Thus, we promote an analysis of the sustainability, under Portuguese law, of the imposition of compensatory measures, independent from other injunctions foreseen in civil and guardianship law, upon the dissolution of family ties in result of a guilty injury of parental obligations, which have caused serious and evident injuries to the children.

Perheoikeuden siveellinen luonne

Ylänimeke: Oikeudenaloja

Quelle famille pour le XXIe siècle ? Perspectives québécoises

L'auteur, autour du thème de l'avenir de la famille, explore deux manifestations de ce qu'il appelle «l'objectivation» de celle-ci. Ce phénomène, issu d'une pluralisation des modes de vi, s'illuste en un premier temps par l'éclatement de la filiation du à une certaine réification de la personne. D'un modèle binaire et sexué, copié de la nature, on accepte aujourd'hui tant la filiation unilinéaire qu'homosexuelle et on se rapproche d'une possible filiation trilinéaire. En ce sens, l'éclatement du modèle semble consommé. En un second temps, cette «objectivisation» de la famille découle de la pluralité des types d'unions. L'auteur, tout en présentant sommairement la réglementation actuelle du mariage et de la récente union civile, soulève la question d'une éventuelle extension de l'«union de droit» dans la législation québécoise.