Your Local Community Magazine
Page 8
International Recognition of Same Sex Marriages
Female Focus by Michael Olmer
It seems that the number of countries and territories around the world that now allow couples of the same sex to marry, or enter formal legal relationships such as Civil Partnerships is ever expanding.
However, while International Law recognises marriages between couples of the opposite sex, it has not kept up with developments in individual countries in recognising relationships between same-sex couples.
This can even be true within different territories of the same country. In the U.K. marriages between couples of the same sex are legal and recognised in England and Wales, and Scotland, but in Northern Ireland a couple of the same sex cannot marry, they can only enter into a Civil Partnership. In Northern Ireland an English or Scots marriage between a same-sex couple is only recognised as if it were a Civil Partnership.
In England and Wales, and Scotland, a Spanish marriage between a same-sex couple is recognised and vice versa. However, if a same-sex couple who married in England or Spain were to move to live in Germany they would not be recognised as “married”; they would have to register their relationship as if they were “Life Partners”.
Some countries within the European Union neither recognise same-sex marriage nor have any form of registration of unmarried couples, such as Poland or Slovakia. So the couple in the example in the paragraph above would not be recognised as married in those countries nor would they be able to register their relationship in any way.
Other countries and territories refuse to recognise any sort of relationship between same-sex couples as being contrary to international public order.
The situation is even more complicated in Spain for same- sex couples who entered into a British Civil Partnership, and later converted it into a Marriage under the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013.
In England and Wales and Scotland those couples are treated as having been married from the date of their Civil Partnership. So for example a gay couple who entered into a Civil Partnership in January 2009 but converted their relationship into a marriage in December 2014 will be legally regarded in England and Wales and Scotland as “married” since January 2009.
In Spain the situation is different. In January this year the Spanish government advised the British Embassy in Madrid that Spain will only regard the same couple as “married” from the date that they converted their Civil Partnership into a Marriage.
These differences in the treatment of same-sex relationships can have far reaching consequences in inheritance, taxation, adoption of children, immigration, and free movement of people within the European Union.
If you are a same- sex couple thinking of moving to Spain or from Spain to another country it is vital that you take advice before making your move. In Spain, please contact Ana Gay at Linkpoint Legal S.L. on 966 260 500
anagay@linkpointlegal.com or in England, Michael Olmer at Clapham and Collinge
mo@clapham-collinge.co.uk.
Solicitors on 01603 693592
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