LawsAndFamilies Database

Across the European Union, almost all countries now agree that same-sex partners should be legally protected – at the very least when one of them dies, or in case of illness, accident or violence. A similar large majority of countries agree that same-sex partners should be allowed to live in the same country. These are the main findings of the research led by Kees Waaldijk, Leiden University’s professor of comparative sexual orientation law. Parenting rights remain more controversial. But already a majority of EU countries allow children to be adopted by the same-sex partner of their mother or father.

All this and much more (such as the slowly growing recognition of different-sex cohabitation) has now been documented in the LawsAndFamilies Database. This new interactive database covers 60 legal aspects of marriage, partnership and cohabitation over the last 50 years for same-sex and different-sex couples in more than 20 countries. It has been created by a team of legal experts, led by Kees Waaldijk at Leiden Law School, together with a team of demographers and sociologists led by Marie Digoix at INED in Paris. A comparative analysis of this enormous collection of data is being published today under the title: More and more together – Legal family formats for same-sex and different-sex couples in European countries.

Bron: Universiteit van Leiden (full article)

LawsAndFamilies Database
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