How increased rights for non-marital unions affect marriage

Abstract

There have been marked variations in the ways men and women are forming relationships which have gradually changed the landscape of union formation in Europe. We will start by examining what factors have led to these changes in union formation as well as how this has led to the evolution of the family. The second chapter aims to highlight the main points in marriage legislation and what rights and duties are proffered to married spouses both during marriage as well as following its dissolution, either through death of one of the spouses or separation. In both the second and third chapter we will examine the motivations behind couples' decision to either marry or opt for non-marital unions, as this serves to highlight if the different types of union serve separate roles or whether one runs the risk of replacing the other. To answer this question, we must also examine if both types of unions are open to be availed of by everyone. Chapter three builds on the findings in chapter one by examining how European states are dealing with these trends in their legislative framework. We go on to study the different emerging types of non-marital unions, mainly cohabitation, registered partnerships and domestic partnerships. These are afforded diverse rights in various European states. We will examine these rights and duties in parallel to those of marriage in a bid to study how the distinctions between them may be being blurred by the legislator. The final chapter builds on the findings of the previous chapters coupled with statistics from around Europe in a bid to examine if and how this may be affecting marriage. In a nutshell we will see that increased rights to non-marital unions have definitely not had a positive effect on marriage. We also study the role of the legislator and how this influences marriage.