De facto relationships in Belgium
(2023) The legal status of de facto relationships — à paraître, accepted/in-press
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- Abstract
- In 1998, Belgium introduced a registered partnership regime called legal cohabi-tation (cohabitation légale) as an alternative to marriage open to both same-sex couples (who could not marry) and different-sex couples (who did not wish to marry). One remarkable feature of the Belgian legal cohabitation being that it is open not only for all types of intimate couples, but also for persons who live to-gether without being a couple (e.g. parents, siblings, friends). This status was designed to provide only a limited patrimonial protection partially inspired by marriage. Thus, while some fundamental obligations associated with marriage (cohabitation, fidelity, emotional and financial support) do not apply to legal cohabitants, they have to contribute to the household expenses and are jointly responsible for such expenses. Some of the provisions protecting the spouses’ family home have also been extended to legal cohabitants. More rights and du-ties have been added to legal cohabitation over time, notably as regards adop-tion and inheritance , but it is still considered that the status, quite popular among the population, remains “minimalist”, and may be dangerous as it could create for legal cohabitants a false sense of security.
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Willems, G. (2023). De facto relationships in Belgium. In A. Hayward and J. Scherpe (ed.), The legal status of de facto relationships (p. à paraître). Intersentia. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/224651