INTRODUCTION
Flying a feminist banner, certain scholars and practitioners of family law have long argued that unwed cohabitants should be treated like married couples when their relationships end. In recent years, a particularly bold version of that argument is finding favour in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, and the USA. Increasingly, legislators, judges, and the experts who advise them are no longer content to defy centuries of legal disapproval of nonmarital cohabitation by letting unmarried couples contract into property-sharing and financial-support rules comparable to those that govern divorcing spouses. This trend goes well beyond merely allowing couples to ‘opt in’ to some of the benefits and burdens of marriage. Under this new wave of law reform, unmarried partners need not reach any agreement, express or implied, on the economic terms of their cohabitation …
Erez Aloni, Marital rules for unmarried couples: Feminist objections to a feminist proposal, International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, volume 39, issue 1, 2025. Published: 9 June 2025.
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