Something old, something new and something borrowed : reform of the law relating to the family home

Despite the fact that European states are beginning to enact wide-ranging legislation dealing with cohabitation, in the UK the debate remains focused on the issue of the family home. The Law Reform Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland (1999) recently issued a consultation paper proposing a scheme of statutory co-ownership of the family home combined with reform of the law of trusts. However, while few would disagree that the complexities, uncertainties and inadequacies of the current law of trusts should be replaced, there are a number of difficulties with the scheme proposed by the Committee. [...