Eingetragene Lebenspartnerschaften im deutschen IPR: Art. 17b EGBGB

The extremely controversial Partnership Law (LpartDisBG) to strengthen the legal position of same-sex couples took effect on August 1, 2001. With this law, registered partnerships became a new institution in family law. A separate law, the LpartG, was passed to regulate all the details. It was unavoidable that many other laws had to be changed, and international private law was no exception. Thus Art. 17b was added to the Introductory Law of the Civil Code. Meinhard Forkert analyzes the new regulations in Art. 17b. He discusses the basis for the new regulations in constitutional law, shows the strengths and weaknesses of the law and provides suggestions for improvement.