Is the law regulating the marital property inheritance relations applicable in matters of cohabitants’ inheritance?

LR Konstitucija šalyje numato vienintelį šeimos kūrimo būdą – santuoka įregistruotą vyro ir moters sąjungą. Atsiradus LR CK trečiosios knygos XV skyriaus nuostatoms, leidžiančioms įregistruoti partnerystę, atsiranda santykiai savo prigimtimi labai artimi santuokai. Visuomenėje keičiasi požiūris, kas yra laikoma šeima, todėl tradicinė šeimos samprata nebėra vienintelis priimtinas būdas kurti šeimos santykius. Didėjantis skaičius porų, kurios nesusituokusios kuria bendrą poros gyvenimą, rodo didėjantį tokių santykių teisinio sureguliavimo poreikį. Nesant teisiškai sureguliuotiems sugyventinių santykiams, asmenys pasirinkę bendrą gyvenimą ne santuokoje, atsiduria nereguliuotoje situacijoje. Vadovaujantis LR CK normomis iškyla klausimų, dėl partnerių galimybės paveldėti pergyvento sugyventinio turtą po jo mirties. Lieka neaišku, ar registruoto partnerio paveldėjimo galimybės numatytmas neprieštarautų esamiems įstatymams, o to nenumačius nediskriminuotų asmenų, pasirinkusių gyvenimą ne santuokoje, tačiau kuriant šeiminius santykius. Darbe analizuojama dviejų rūšių partnerystė: neregistruotos partnerystės santykių reglamentavimas Lietuvoje ir registruotos partnerystės įstatymo projekto problematika sugyventinių paveldėjimo klausimu, tokį įstatymą priėmus. Darbe vertinama ir apžvelgiama teismų praktika, susieta su pertyvenusio partnerio teisėmis į užgyvento turto paskirstymą po partnerio mirties. Analizuojamas galimo paveldėjimo instituto numatymo registruotoje partnersystėje pagrįstumas. Apžvelgiama užsienio šalių praktika diskutuotinu klausimu. Atlikus Lietuvos ir užsienio šalių analizę darbe pateikiamos išvados bei rekomendacijos dėl galimo paveldėjimo instituto įvedimo partnersytėje bei teisinio tokių santykių reglamentavimo.A marriage between a man and a woman is the only way in Lithuania to created official family relationship according to the Constitution of Lithuanian Republic. After a Project for Registered Partnership was published the relationship of registered partnership and marriage apparently came to be very close in their essence. In 2001 when the Civil code of Lithuanian Republic came into force, the XV chapter of the Civil code foreseen the regulation for the registered partnership. The Registered Partnership Law that should regulate such relationship started to be considered as early as 2004 but still is under construction. It is clear that during a period of seven years the law did not come into force and people who have chosen to live in partnership are left without legal regulation of their relationship. Laws that could be currently applicable do not regulate registration or decline of the relationship it also does not provide any remedy for the surviving partner of the couple. Changing attitude in the society towards a life in unmarried relationship start to hold such union a form of family. While analyzing similarities of partnership with marriage we could find many things that are the same in both relationships. If partnership and marriage are alike, then we face an issue, when a law does not regulate a relationship that is in need of such regulation. People who spend most of their lives together creating a household and bringing up the children are left without anything in the case of death of one of the partner and are treated as strangers in the circumstances of inheritance law. The purpose of this paper is to answer a legal question: is the law regulating the marital property inheritance relations applicable in matters of cohabitants’ inheritance? The research of the paper is based on literature of scholarly writings, analogy and comparison. The tasks for this paper are to analyze current situation in Lithuania and possibility to inherit after a partner’s death; to analyze the institute of registered partnership and to suggest possibilities and reasons for application of inheritance law; to compare non-registered partnership and registered partnership relationships and their regulation in European Union. The hypothesis in the paper is raised such that Lithuania need to react to the changing social life and increasing number of people choosing to live in non marital relationship. Other wise “that would be a harmful phenomenon if law, as a social value, would not react to the public relations, that happen in real life and to the protection of law that is needed by participants of these relationship”. The paper analyses two types of partnership: non-registered partnership and registered partnership. While writing the paper the closer look is taken to analyze the current situation in Lithuania to regulate non-registered partnership relationship. Another half of the paper looks at the project of registered partnership and various problems that are caused while trying to understand how different this relationship is from married and what is the reason not to have inheritance law mentioned in the project. Cases solved by courts are taken into consideration while trying to analyze the matter. It takes a closer look at the court‘s decisions and reasoning for the division of the property after a death of one of the partners. The paper also analyses legal system and practice of foreign countries. After the analysis is done, the conclusions are drawn up. The paper also provides with recommendations for the current situation and also for the future registered partnership law. The current situation in the country showed that relationship between a man and a woman who chose not to marry are problematic in allowing inheriting firstly because of a lack of the will and publicity of their relationship. In the absence of expressed will there can be no outcome of law protecting such relationship. Such relationship can be easily hidden from the publicity and the allowance of inheritance could violate the rights of the intestate descendants. The law in Lithuania prohibits relationship for homosexuals, therefore, another reasoning for the heterosexual couples not to allow inherit is the possibility of getting married at any point. In doing so the couple would get all the benefits as the spouses do. According to the existing system in Lithuania, the property that is hold by partners are considered to be their own personal property or total joint property and therefore after one of the partner’s death needs to be divided following the rules of the fourth book of Lithuanian Republic civil code, but not by the rules that regulate inheritance. A different situation comes to be regulated when we point to the institute of registered partnership. In the essence of the regulation, relationship is so closely similar to the marriage that the different treatment of such relationship would be unreasonable. The only difference between registered partners would be their choice of marriage versus partnership. On the other hand, they had expressed their choice openly, indicating that marriage is not the value that they are seeking for, therefore, by doing so, they are fully aware of the outcomes of such their choice. After analysis the Convention of Human Rights and Basic Freedoms, articles 8 and 14 suggest that relationship that treat relationship differently in relatively similar situation having no justification for mistreat violates the convention and is discriminatory.Vytauto Didžiojo universiteta