Baština (Jan 2024)
Extra-marriage community as an accommodation of civilization development
Abstract
Cohabitation represents a more permanent union of the lives of one woman and one man who are not married. All modern family laws have accepted this form of community life, and in some European countries it is very widespread. According to our legislation, an extramarital union is a life union of two people of different sexes that lacks the legal form of marriage. Another characteristic of cohabitation is its duration and stability. There is no single and universal interpretation of extramarital union in modern law. The differences are conditioned by the relationship of rights to the personal rights and obligations of partners in such a union. Some laws also recognize same-sex persons the right to recognize extramarital unions (Netherlands and France, Great Britain, Denmark), while others require the registration of such unions (Belgium, France, Netherlands). The existence of the will of two persons to live in a union of life and the duration of the union are generally the minimum conditions for such an extramarital union to be legally recognized, i.e. to produce legal consequences. In some Western European countries, extramarital unions have become, in the past few decades, a common form of community life, but they are not legally regulated by the regulations of family legislation, as in Serbia, where the actions of such unions are regulated by regulations on the right to support, and the acquisition and division of joint property. Analysis of the application of family legislation to extramarital unions shows that due to certain unfavorable circumstances related to the birth of children out of wedlock, the protection of extramarital unions is not equal to the protection of married unions. Although protection is guaranteed to every family according to the Constitution, and the Family Law prescribes that children born in marriage are equal to children born out of wedlock, in enjoying the rights and their protection that are guaranteed to them by law, extramarital unions do not enjoy nearly the kind of protection that the legislator intended marriage. Thus, for example, the termination of an extramarital union is not nearly as affected by the measures of the competent authorities as in the case of the termination of a marriage. There is no conciliation procedure, there is no ex officio decision on entrusting children for care and upbringing, etc. Bearing in mind that extramarital union is a widespread form of community of life and that according to existing legislation it is not equal to married union in all aspects, the subject of consideration of this paper will be the causes of the origin and existence of extramarital union, its legal regulation from the aspect of international regulations and domestic legislation, the position and relations of partners in such a community, in order to more effectively implement the constitutional framework according to which every family is guaranteed protection.
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