Fitzpatrick v Sterling Housing Association Ltd - an endorsement of the functional family?

Cases

“…In that case, the House ruled (by a majority of 3-2) that while the Rent Act 1977 (as amended) allowed a same-sex partner to acquire an assured tenancy, as a member of the deceased tenant's 'family', it did not entitle same-sex couples to be treated as each other's 'spouses' for these purposes (see Glennon 2000Glennon , 2002Ryan, 2001). The 1988 amendment, the House reasoned, necessarily implied that the partners, though unmarried, should be of a different sex from each other.…”

“…posited that the court should look not to the outward form that a relationship took but, rather, at the functions that a husband and wife performed. Given that a same-sex couple performed largely the same functions for each other as an opposite sex couple, the terms 'husband and wife', read in a functionalist light, admitted of a non-discriminatory reading (see also Glennon, 2000Glennon, , 2002, Others, however, considered this a step too far. For Lord Millett, dissenting, the decision of the majority had rendered the words of the statute in a manner that was 'inconsistent with a fundamental feature of the legislative scheme' (Millett L., §68).…”

Cohabitation Law Reform – Messages From Research

“…This article's principal task is to explore the messages from research available to 1 Examples are: Legal -Bailey-Harris 1996, Bottomley 1998, Eekelaar (ed. ) 2001, Glennon (2000), Miles (2003), Probert (2004), Wong (2003); Socio-legal - Arthur et al (2001), Barlow & Probert (2004), Barlow et al (2005), Douglas (2000, Lewis (2001), Eekelaar & Maclean (2004); Demographic -Kiernan (2004), Ermisch & Francesconi (2000), Shaw & Haskey (1999); Sociological/Social Policy - Duncan et al (2005), Jamieson et al (2002), Smart & Stevens (2000); Psychological -Burgoyne (1995 We accept that marriage is a status deserving of special treatment. However, we have identified, in the course of this project, a wider need for the law to recognise and to respond to the increasing diversity of living arrangements in this country.…”