Among the 21 European countries surveyed for the LawsAndFamilies Database (www.lawsandfamilies.eu), there is a clear trend (fortified by European law) of offering same-sex couples the opportunity... Show moreAmong the 21 European countries surveyed for the LawsAndFamilies Database (www.lawsandfamilies.eu), there is a clear trend (fortified by European law) of offering same-sex couples the opportunity to formalise their relationship as marriage and/or as registered partnership, and of attaching more and more rights and responsibilities to the informal cohabitation, the registered partnership and/or the civil marriage of two people of the same sex. This chapter focusses on the timing of all these changes. In a five periods analysis, it establishes whether major partnership rights were extended to same-sex couples at the time of the introduction of registered partnership, or before, or at the time of the opening up of marriage, or between those two moments, or after the opening up of marriage. Thereby, and by calculating the same-sex legal recognitionconsensus among the countries surveyed for each of 26 selected rights, it finds nine typical sequences: Attitudes before rights; Rights before status; Bad-times rights before good-times rights; Responsibilities before benefits; Individual partner rights before couple rights; Partnership before marriage; Immigration rights among the first to be gained; Parenting rights among the last to be gained; Legal recognition before social legitimacy. Show less
January 2017 sees the publication of The LawsAndFamilies Database (ed. by Kees Waaldijk et al.). This database is one of the milestones of the larger EU-funded FamiliesAndSocieties research project... Show moreJanuary 2017 sees the publication of The LawsAndFamilies Database (ed. by Kees Waaldijk et al.). This database is one of the milestones of the larger EU-funded FamiliesAndSocieties research project. This new online open-access resource will make it easier to find and compare legal information about marriage, registered partnership and cohabitation in European countries. The database is accessible via www.LawsAndFamilies.eu.The information in the database has been provided by selected legal experts in 21 countries in the European Economic Area (typically two experts per country). In a questionnaire the experts were asked, for some 60 typical legal consequences and formalities of marriage, to what degree and since when these consequences and formalities are now available to same-sex and/or different-sex couples via one or more of three possible legal family formats (marriage, registered partnership, cohabitation). Show less
