A couple recently won a bid to open up civil unions to opposite-sex couples, after the Supreme Court ruled that the current law is unlawful.
Rebecca and Charles's case
Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan met in 2010 and have two children together. They are in a committed relationship but feel that a civil partnership would suit their relationship better than marriage, which they regard as an out-of-date and patriarchal institution.
However, the law currently does not allow heterosexual couples to enter into a civil partnership. By contrast, same-sex couples are able to choose whether to enter into civil partnerships, or to marry, and therefore have the option to do what suits their relationship best.
What does the law say?
The Supreme Court found that this inequality amounted to discrimination and was a breach of the couple's right to family life under the European Convention on Human Rights.
More specifically, it ruled that inequality in the treatment of different-sex and same-sex couples under the existing civil partnership legislation was incompatible with human rights standards.
Will anything change as a result of this decision?
Whilst this ruling does not require the Government to change the current law, it remains to be seen whether it will action a change to allow everyone the choice and enable couples to enter into whichever arrangement suits their relationship the best.
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