Cohabitation and Property Relations from a European Family Law Perspective

Abstract

In recent years, we have seen what many refer to as the crisis of the traditional family that based on a marital union of a man and a woman. This crisis is clearly apparent in the relatively high divorce rate and a lower number of marriages. If we however look at the data closely, it suggests, that rather than a simple decline in marriage, there appears to be a far more complex picture of sequential cohabitations, separations, marriages and divorces. To some, such statistics demonstrate the complete breakdown of family values, while others argue that families are simply changing as they always have done, and that family values are just as healthy as before – but are simply being expressed in different forms. Cohabitation is one of the key terms in this debate. One of the main challenges for contemporary international family law is cohabitation and, in particular, cohabitation with a foreign legal element. The prospect of an international convention with universal standards on cohabitation is highly unlikely at present, given the differences of opinion between States on cohabitation. The article highlights the gaps in this area as well as potential opportunities for future legislation. The research was carried out within the framework of the Central European Professors‘ Network coordinated by the Ferenc Mádl Institute of Comparative Law.