This contribution addresses recent proposals for legislating an area of family law that has so far been neglected by many national legislatures. It focuses on the relationship of couples who are neither married nor in a registered partnership with each other. More than 20 years ago, John Eekelaar dealt with the topic in great detail. Therefore, his publications in this field of family law should be honoured first, before subsequently introducing and comparing recent proposals. The proposals stem from two regional organisations in Europe and the US, and at the national level from a Law Commission, an advisory committee and a political party. In addition, a brief overview will be provided of those European jurisdictions which, in recent years, have legislated certain aspects of de facto relationships. The overall question is whether a trend towards the legal recognition of these relationships through legislation can be discerned.

Before following the described path, a conceptual issue should be clarified. The term ‘cohabitation’ is still used by many organisations and authors. In the opinion of this author, this term is somewhat outdated and old-fashioned. Other terms, such as informal and non-formalised or non-conjugal relationships, have been used in the legal discourse. The Commission on European Family Law has recently decided to use the term ‘de facto union’ in its new set of principles. It does not need further discussion to understand that the different terms refer to the same form of living together, as a couple who have not formalised their relationship either in the form of marriage or a registered partnership. Therefore, the various terms will be used interchangeably in the context of the various legislative projects.

1. JOHN EEKELAAR ON UNMARRIED COHABITATION

In 2001, John Eekelaar acted as chief editor of a special issue, ‘Unmarried Cohabitation in Europe’, of the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family. In accordance with the interdisciplinary outlook of the journal, the topic was approached from different angles. Of the nine contributions, eight were written by social and political scientists and demographers, reporting on various studies undertaken in Great Britain, Spain, Germany, Norway, France, Sweden, the US and Western Europe, the last-mentioned being based on the Eurobarometer surveys. Only one contribution analysed several European jurisdictions from a comparative law perspective.