De facto partners on the winding road of law

Abstract

Based on a study written by Ádám Tóth in 2003, this article presents the ideas that have emerged regarding the legal regulation of de facto partnerships since its publication. It discusses the experts’ proposals made during the preparatory work for the new Civil Code and their evaluation in legal literature. It shows how the text of the enacted law differs from these proposals and explains why this represents a step backwards compared to earlier ideas. In light of the statistical data from the 2022 census and based on the model rules of the Commission on European Family Law, it outlines what changes would be necessary for the legal regulation to correspond to the growing social acceptance of de facto partnerships and the trends which have developed in Europe.