Some Aspects of Legal Regulating Cross-Border Marriages

Abstract

One of the pressing problems of the modern society is the question of recognizing the legal consequences of cross-border marriages. Legal regulation of family relations with a foreign element has a complex, multilevel nature that includes material and conflict norms contained in multilateral and bilateral international treaties and in domestic law. One of the problems associated with the unification of the law in the area of marriage and family relations is the legalization of the consequences of prisoners of same-sex marriage. Now, same-sex unions are official in some countries in Europe and in many US states. The list of countries that have legalized same-sex marriages is constantly expanding. In some countries where same-sex unions are prohibited, an institution of civil partnership or civil union has been introduced. In many countries that legalized same-sex marriages, civil partnerships for same-sex couples were an intermediate step towards marital equality. The current Russian legislation does not contain special norms aimed at regulating relations in same-sex family unions. In particular, the property relations of persons who are members of such relations are regulated by the norms of Russian civil law. As a consequence, the property rights and obligations of the partners of a same-sex union are significantly different from the property rights of spouses who are in a legal, registered marriage. Thus, for example, to acquire the property of a person consisting in the specified relations, can only in the common share property. The right of common shared property between partners in same-sex unions can arise if there is a written agreement of these persons establishing common property acquired in actual relations. Finding partners in same-sex factual relationships does not create any legal obligations to keep each other's partners either during or after the relationship. The legal regulation of hereditary legal relations in same-sex unions also has its own characteristics. Thus, the prevailing situation of insufficient legal regulation of the legal consequences, of the same-sex unions concluded requires an early legislative decision. Author believes that such a decision is possible in the form of civil partnership.