Civil partnership fight heads to Supreme Court

The solicitor representing a man and a woman battling for the right to choose to enter a civil partnership has hailed what she describes as a ‘significant step’ in the journey for equal rights.

The Supreme Court has granted Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan permission to take their case to the highest UK court.

The Court of Appeal, in February, dismissed Steinfeld and Keidan’s appeal over an earlier High Court decision refusing them judicial review of the education secretary’s decision not to, at this stage, propose any change to the bar on opposite-sex couples entering into a civil partnership.

Graeme Fraser, a partner at Hunters Solicitors, said: “The Supreme Court may well decide as a matter of equality that heterosexual couples should have the right to register formal civil partnerships, although this status was originally intended to provide rights to same-sex couples before they had equal rights to marry.

“But given the increasing number of people in relationships choosing not to marry, or enter into legal formalities before or during their relationship, this should not detract from the more pressing issue: providing protection and support through legislative reform to cohabitants left financially vulnerable upon relationship breakdown, in particular those who have been financially disadvantaged by the relationship to care for children.”

Read the full article in The Times, The Times Law Brief and The Law Society Gazette.