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03 July 2008 / Augur Pearce
Issue: 7328 / Categories: Features , Family
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Coupledom

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Augur Pearce discusses the meaning of civil partnership

In dismissing the appeal in Burden v United Kingdom (7 May 2008, Appn 13378/05, discussed at 158 NLJ 681, [2008] All ER (D) 391 (Apr)), the Grand Chamber (GC) of the European Court of Human Rights held British inheritance tax rules did not improperly discriminate between the situations of civil partners and the two appellant sisters. The sisters' cohabitation was qualitatively different from those of civil partners.

But how? The GC held civil partnership (CP) distinguishable as a publicly recognised, legally effective relationship entailing both rights and obligations—language that could describe any contract. For all its importance to tax lawyers, Burden points up a serious family law issue: where, on a spectrum between marriage at one end and a practical or commercial arrangement at the other, does CP belong? Behind the answer lies another fast-developing field: the interaction of law and religion.

Organised Religion and Homosexuality

Organised religious groups frequently dislike same-sex relationships. Not all their members agree, and hierarchies do not necessarily speak for the rank and

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