Baroness Deech forecasts change in family law

Tue 16 Mar 2010

The chairman of the Bar Standards Board has predicted that homosexual couples could eventually be able to marry.

Gay men and women are not currently allowed to get married, but can sign up for civil partnerships.

However, Baroness Deech believes there could be a legal case in which it is decided that banning gay couples from marriage is discriminatory, the Telegraph reports.

Cases of this nature have failed in the past, but she said societal views could shift enough to ensure that there could be a different outcome in the future.

Indeed, Baroness Deech noted that attitudes towards homosexuality and marriage have evolved considerably in the last 50 years.

She stated that marriage is often defined in legal circles as the voluntary lifelong union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others.

However, she noted that family law and changes in society in general mean that "not one word of this remains true".

According to official figures, the marriage rate in England and Wales fell to its lowest level on record in 2008.

Carol Ellinas, a partner at Winckworth Sherwood Solicitors, commented: "Homosexuals who have entered into a civil partnership already have all the legal remedies available to them if their relationship breaks down so a change in legislation allowing them to marry will not afford them any greater rights.

"As divorce lawyers we have acted for same-sex couples whose relationship has broken down.

"The law treats them the same as if they were married provided they have gone through a civil partnership ceremony."