Friday, December 20,2002
British court rules on tenancy issue of domestic partners
A story released today by This is London reports that a British Court of Appeal recently found that a legislation that treated same-sex partners less favorably than unmarried heterosexual couples as discriminatory.
Having considered the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights 1950 and the Human Rights Act 1998, the court held that a schedule to the Rent Act 1977 was discriminatory in providing the survivor of a same-sex partner relationship with a less secure tenancy than the survivor of an unmarried heterosexual relationship.
Although the outcome of this case is likely to increase pressure for unmarried partners to be given the same rights as spouses, in this decision the court focused on existing legislation, which had granted rights to opposite-sex partners.
