Married couples have legal rights, but unmarried couples’ rights depend on jurisdiction. Common law marriage and written agreements can grant rights similar to marriage. Without legal protection, unmarried couples may face issues with decision-making, inheritance, and separation.
While all countries and localities grant certain rights to married couples, things are much less predictable when it comes to unmarried couples. An unmarried couple’s legal rights, if any, depend entirely on the jurisdiction. In some places, couples who have lived together for any length of time and have declared themselves married are presumed to be married under the so-called common law marriage doctrine. Other places will offer cohabitation rights, which typically parallel many marriage rights, to couples in committed relationships. Unless rights have been specifically sought, however, it is rare for a court to recognize an unmarried couple as more than two individuals.
In most cases, marriage automatically brings with it a number of benefits and responsibilities. Spouses usually may have legal and medical responsibility for each other; be seen as one in the eyes of the state, for taxation and other purposes; and to enjoy, among other things, the co-ownership of the assets acquired during the marriage. These benefits generally do not concern couples who have opted for cohabitation rather than marriage, or who for reasons of local law cannot marry, as often happens with same-sex partners. The law is generally more concerned with binding contracts than with personal commitments.
Things are a little different in places that recognize common law marriage. More often than not, common law marriage is treated as a functional marriage. Common law doctrine typically requires an unmarried couple to act as if they were married – and sometimes even to subjectively believe they are married – before common law marriage rights come together. Most places consider common law marriage a matrimonial exception, rather than an unmarried couple situation.
Jurisdictions that are willing to grant rights to unmarried couples usually do so based on some type of written agreement. Countries and states that allow domestic partnerships and civil partnerships typically require at least a paper record of the couple’s domicile agreement. While these documents do not have the force of a marriage contract, in most places they are a reminder that the relationship is permanent. An unmarried couple in these situations may enjoy rights which in many ways mirror the rights of marriage. These rights, however, must be deliberately sought almost everywhere.
Not all unmarried couples want their marriage or civil partnership to continue. Couples often decide to start living together before marriage as a way of “proofing compatibility,” and many believe that marriage or cohabitation is a fairly permanent sign of commitment for the present. For many couples, living together in a celibate state is a way to stay commitment-free. Many of these relationships, however, persist for years, and couples often share property, homes, debt, and sometimes even children. Legal rights may not be an issue for these couples when things are going well, but they become increasingly important when relationships run into trouble.
If one unmarried partner becomes terminally ill or incapacitated, for example, the other may face a legal battle to earn the right to make decisions. Similarly, if one unmarried partner dies without a will, the other may find that the deceased’s biological relatives can inherit everything. Couples who simply choose to end their relationships may also run afoul of the law when they discover there is no equivalent of divorce for unmarried people.
A couple who are unmarried and have not filed any applications for marriage-like protection with the government will, more often than not, receive no special privileges or rights under the law. Members of this type of couple will still have some rights, of course, but they will be the rights of individuals, not the rights of a married couple. It is extremely rare for the courts to intervene in the personal disputes of individuals who have never sought legal protection for their union.
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