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14 March 2014 / Claire Clarke
Issue: 7598 / Categories: Features , Family
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The lives we live

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Marriage-lite or a new set of rights? Claire Clarke examines the legal options open for cohabitants
The way we were: once upon a time, there was respectable marriage which conferred financial dependence and security on the woman. Outside a world of defiance of convention and no rights except minimal support for the child.

 

The way we are: cohabitation has lost stigma and become a parallel life choice. As many as 40% of all couples now cohabit and one in four children is born outside marriage. Notwithstanding this, English law does not recognise a coherent legal system of relations and obligations called cohabitation. The notion of a “common law marriage” remains a lingering myth which is serving to leave a significant number of people vulnerable and surprised that the law does not offer them similar protection to their married counterparts.

A recent survey of MPs has revealed that 69% of parliamentarians agree that there is a mistaken belief in the existence of “common law marriage” among their constituents and that 57% of MPs

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