Domestic partnership
A domestic partnership is an intimate relationship between people, usually couples, who live together and share a common domestic life but who are not married (to each other or to anyone else). People in domestic partnerships receive legal benefits that guarantee right of survivorship, hospital visitation, and other rights.
The term is not used consistently, which results in some inter-jurisdictional confusion. Some jurisdictions, such as Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. states of California, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington use the term "domestic partnership" to mean what other jurisdictions call civil union, civil partnership, or registered partnership. Other jurisdictions use the term as it was originally coined, to mean an interpersonal status created by local municipal and county governments, which provides an extremely limited range of rights and responsibilities.
Some legislatures have voluntarily established domestic partnership relations by statute instead of being ordered to do so by a court. Although some jurisdictions have instituted domestic partnerships as a way to recognize same-sex marriage, statutes do exist which provide for recognition of opposite-sex domestic partnerships in many jurisdictions.
In some legal jurisdictions, domestic partners who live together for an extended period of time but are not legally entitled to common-law marriage may be entitled to legal protection in the form of a domestic partnership. Some domestic partners may enter into nonmarital relationship contracts in order to agree, either verbally or in writing, to issues involving property ownership, support obligations, and similar issues common to marriage. (See effects of marriage and palimony.) Beyond agreements, registration of relationships in domestic partnership registries allow for the jurisdiction to formally acknowledge domestic partnerships as valid relationships with limited rights.
Overview[edit]
Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, a Domestic Partnership, Same Sex Marriage or Civil Union are each separate and distinct legal concepts. The domestic partnership is a legal relationship between two people of the same or opposite sex who live together and share a domestic life, but are not married or joined by a civil union nor are blood relatives. It may be established by contract between the parties, but more often by registration according to procedures established by a state or municipal government. Benefits granted under a domestic partnership vary among different jurisdictions. Some accord full health benefits, others only a right of visitation.[1] In still other jurisdictions, registered domestic partners are accorded a legal status similar to that of a married person with respect to matters of probate, guardianships, conservatorships, inheritance, protection from abuse, and related matters.[2]
Since the 2015 US Supreme Court's decision legalizing same-sex marriage, there have been fewer US domestic partnerships registered, but in many jurisdictions they are still allowed for couples of the same gender or different genders who do not want to marry but still would like to be eligible for certain benefits. Many couples opt for a domestic partnership after comparing the potential tax consequences of being married.[3]
In Europe[edit]
In France since 1968, article 515-81 of Code civil defines domestic partnership (in French: concubinage or concubinage notoire[40]) as a de facto union between two persons, of different sex or of same sex, characterised by a stable and continuous cohabitation and partnership. The French fiscal administration takes it into account in the calculation of the solidarity tax on wealth but not for other purposes. All children enjoy equal right whether within or outside wedlock. Since 1999 French law also provides for a civil solidarity pact (in French: pacte civil de solidarité, or PACS), a contractual form of civil union between two adults bringing additional rights and responsibilities, but less so than marriage.
Hungary has registered partnerships for same-sex partners, which afford rights similar to marriage. Croatia also had unregistered partnerships until June 2014 when the Croatian parliament passed a law allowing life partnerships for same-sex couples giving them the same rights married couples do have.
In Hungary, since 1995[41] domestic partnership in the form of unregistered cohabitation offers a limited set of rights compared to marriage in a Civil Code (more in the field of health and pension; but no inheritance), although a growing number of Hungarian couples, both opposite-sex couples and same-sex couples choose this kind of partnership instead of marriage. In April 2009, the Hungarian Parliament passed a Registration Partnership Act 2009 with a vote of 199–159, which provides a registered partnership for same-sex couples with all the benefits and entitlements of marriage (except for marriage itself, adoption, IVF access, taking a partner's surname, parentage and surrogacy). The law was passed in December 2007 by a vote of 110–78, but the Constitutional Court of Hungary was "deeply concerned" that the law was a duplication of opposite-sex marriage benefits and entitlements, so same-sex couples only registration was chosen. Some politicians of the Alliance of Free Democrats and Hungarian Socialist Party parties have argued for the introduction of marriage for same-sex couples. The Registration Partnership Act 2009 came into effect from July 1, 2009.[42]