The Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths Act 2019 came into force last week, and will allow heterosexual couples to enter into civil partnerships.

Rebecca Christie commented:

“Last week the Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration etc) Act 2019 came into force, allowing couples of  the opposite sex to enter into a civil partnership.  Legally speaking civil partnerships are akin to marriage, for example they both give legal protection to spouses and civil partners in the event of one party’s death or if the parties’ were to separate. This is in contrast to cohabitants, who contrary to the myth of the common law marriage, have no automatic legal rights to maintenance, a share of their partner’s property or any inheritance tax advantages.

“In 2019 there is no longer just one idea of what it is to be a family in modern day Britain. From a social perspective, civil partnerships differ from marriage as they are free from the historical baggage of patriarchy, the idea that marriage is a mechanism for a wife become the property of her husband.

“This extension to the law not only reflects modern family life but provides heterosexual couples with more choice in how they label their union. It is hoped that they may now be more inclined to give their relationship a legal status and avoid the lack of legal security of cohabitation.”

Read the full piece in The Times here, behind a paywall.