Civil Partnerships Act (Published 05/09/05)

Every now and again the government brings in a new law that it reckons will make the whole world fine and dandy once and for all. Whenever this happens I know it is going to be a flop. It seems to me the new Civil Partnerships Act now falls into this category. The idea behind this is that homosexuals should be able to marry too. So from December a 'civil partnership' will be the same for homosexuals as a marriage is for heterosexuals.

Sounds fine in theory, but there will still be nothing new for unmarried couples of either persuasion. This seems to me to be a major problem, because ignorance of their rights is usually the number one issue facing unmarried couples, and telling them they can marry is not really going to address that issue. It is more of an educative problem than a legal one.

It gets worse. One couple are now taking the government to court saying that a 'civil partnership' is not good enough. They want to be married and why should they be treated as second class citizens by being fobbed off with a 'civil partnership'? It’s discrimination and against their human rights, they say.

So we start off with an idea that sounds like the very epitome of reasonableness but don't bother thinking it through (how could anything so reasonable cause any difficulties?) and end up with a dogs dinner that no-one is particularly happy with. Except us lawyers of course. Watch this space for further laws to clear up the mess!