Critically evaluate english's law's approach to the issue of marriages between persons of the same sex - Outline Example

ship in UK, civil union and registered partnership between same sex couple was legalized under the Civil Partnership Act of 2004 (Legislation.gov.uk a). The number of same sex couples has been constantly increasing. Since same sex couples are legally allowed to enter into Civil Partnership agreement, the number of same sex couples registered under Civil Partnerships reached up to 6,281 couples (3,227 gay couples and 3,054 lesbian couples) (Office for National Statistics). Although Civil Partnership in UK provides same sex couples with almost the same privilege and rights of marriage, there are still some differences between Civil Partnerships and marriage.

Specifically in Civil Partnerships, the concept of adultery was removed as a ground for Civil Partnership dissolution (Barker; Barker). This is true since adultery in the legal definition can take place only to heterosexual couples (Bindmans Civil Partnership). In the case of marriage, adultery is a major offense which is legally acknowledged as a ground for marriage dissolution (ibid). Unlike in marriage, the ground of non-consummation for nullity is not applicable in Civil Partnership making Civil Partnership as good as a legal status instead of a family relationship (Barker; Cretney).

For this reason, Civil Partnership can be used by friends for tax haven purposes. Since Civil Partnerships is still not recognized by the UK government as marriage, a lot of opposing parties argue that Civil Partnership violates the Equality Act 2010 and some Articles of the European Convention on Human Rights (Bamforth; Government Equalities Office). The case of Wilkinson v Kitzinger [2006]1 is a good example wherein the same sex couples are fighting for the idea that same sex couples should not be excluded in the institution of marriage because of public discrimination particularly in workplace (Bell).

Although Wilkinson and Kitzinger were legally married in Canada, their married was considered void in UK because of the