Partnership Institute – Issues and Improvement of Legal Framework in the Republic of Latvia. Summary of the Doctoral Thesis

Abstract

Partnership Institute – issues and improvement of legal framework in the Republic of Latvia Both free movement of people and easier people-to-people contacts (the liberalisation of relationships) have put the rights to respect for private life, home and correspondence, including ‘family life’, on the agenda. Today’s social reality calls for the revision of family law and the solution of property matters according to society’s needs. These issues are relevant not only for Latvia but also for other countries that have not yet introduced a legal framework dealing with cohabitation, with the result that an unmarried relationship between two persons starting a family in one way or another is not recognised by law. The legalisation of same-sex cohabitation by means of national law is even more controversial. There is still a broad debate observed in the public domain regarding the necessity of a special cohabitation legislation to ensure equal legal security for families, irrespective of whether or not they are registered from the legal point of view. The objective of the doctoral thesis – to identify issues concerning the scope of a family in the context of cohabitation by analysing the doctrine of the institution of cohabitation and foreign legislation and formulate recommendations for improvement of cohabitation laws in Latvia’s legal system. The doctoral thesis analyses both the existing legislation and case law and studies available in Latvia to pinpoint the main legal problems faced by cohabiting couples and suggest potential solutions. In Latvia, there are people who prefer cohabitation for various reasons, thereby starting a family that is not based on the institution of marriage. As already mentioned, marriage between a man and a woman is the only way of living together recognised by law in the Republic of Latvia. Nevertheless, many have started a family without registering their relationship officially according to part one “Family Law” of the Civil Law. Therefore, such a union between people is regarded as controversial with respect to the institution of family according to law. This means that unregistered cohabitation is increasingly prevalent in society, leading to certain inconsistency in a number of fields of law, such as inheritance, the rights of patients and their protection, people’s social rights, the right of information, procedure law, etc. This is important in situations when unregistered family ties disintegrate, there are disputes over cohabiting partners’ property division, fulfilment of obligations, subsequent care for the partners’ children, etc. Legislative amendments suggested by the author would provide a more equal legal treatment of cohabiting and married couples. Introducing cohabitation rules would ensure a uniform framework in the field of family law, which would solve current issues arising due to the lack of legislation or interpretation and, accordingly, inconsistent case law, and provide a legal basis for situations that are not yet dealt with by law.