Speaker: Dr Denise Wiedemann
In Europe, the regulation of cohabitation started only in 60s, alongside the decriminalization of extramarital sex. Some Latin-American states, in contrast, enacted cohabitation laws significantly earlier. For example, when the Mexican Federal Civil Code of 1928 was drafted, the legislator acknowledged that extramarital cohabitation was a wide-spread form of living in Mexico, especially in indigenous communities. The legislator refused to ignore this factual situation, but saw instead a responsibility to protect the children and women who were affected.
From this starting point, two main developments can be identified for Mexico: First, male and female partners are protected equally today. And second, the legal effects of concubinage have been expanded considerably and, thus, marriage and concubinage are treated (almost) alike. In sum, Mexican law primarily aims at protecting the vulnerable partner.
In this talk, Dr Wiedemann will present the European regulation of extramarital cohabitation, and compare this to Latin American systems. In doing so, she will discuss the underlying assumptions of those systems, and the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Dr Denise Wiedemann is a Senior Research Fellow and the Head of the Centre of Expertise on Latin America at the Max-Planck-Institute for Comparative and Private International Law in Hamburg. She studied law in Leipzig (first state exam in law), European law and comparative law in Lisbon (LL.M.), and administration of justice in Meißen (Diplom). She obtained her PhD at University of Leipzig. After legal clerkship stations in Brasilia and New York and sitting for the second state exam in law she started her postdoctoral research in Hamburg. Denise’s research lies in the field of comparative family and succession law as well as private international law.
If you have any questions, please get in touch with Claire Fenton-Glynn (ces74@cam.ac.uk)
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