Ampel plans a new bond for life - "Biggest reform of family law in recent decades"

Created: 01/11/2022, 09:29 AM

From: Sebastian Horsch

The traffic light government in Berlin also wants to legally safeguard partnerships apart from conventional (love) relationships.

© Ute Grabowsky / Imago

It's not just married couples who stand up for one another.

The traffic light coalition therefore wants to create a legal framework for everyone who bears responsibility for other people, even if they are unmarried.

Munich / Berlin - father, mother, child.

It is obvious that this traditional household model is no longer the only reality today.

There are blended families, unconventional partnerships and shared apartments in close platonic relationships.

But if people apart from marriage want to take responsibility for one another, they have to regulate this through powers of attorney and contracts.

There is no standardized framework.

The traffic light wants to change that.

In the coalition agreement, the SPD, the Greens and the FDP state: "We will introduce the institute of community of responsibility and thus enable two or more adults to take legal responsibility for each other beyond love relationships or marriage."

Community of responsibility: Society has become more mobile

The new Federal Minister of Justice has important things in mind. "What we agreed in the coalition agreement is probably the largest reform of family law in recent decades," says Marco Buschmann (FDP). It should give people who are there for each other without a wedding ring on their fingers new legal possibilities and offer a lot of flexibility in the individual design. "We will probably offer a multi-level model with the community of responsibility that fits different life situations and enables different levels of responsibility for each other," explains Buschmann. At the lowest level, the contracting parties could grant each other powers of attorney for information and representation, explains FDP MP Stephan Thomae to the

continue from.

At the highest level there could be a mutual promise to work together and provide for the maintenance of the other.

In addition, it is also a question of legally safeguarding shared apartments for senior citizens, says Buschmann - for example in the question of who receives information when a roommate comes to the hospital or who is the tenant when a member of the community dies.

Single parents who receive permanent childcare support from people outside their own family could also use such legally secure agreements.

After all, it is more and more common for people outside of the family to get together.

Also because society has become more mobile, parents and adult children often live far away from each other.

Marco Buschmann (FDP), the new Federal Minister of Justice, takes the oath of office at the swearing-in ceremony in the Bundestag.

© Kay Nietfeld / dpa

Community of responsibility - Union spokesman sees tangible conflict

Buschmann, who is married himself, emphasizes that this cannot be compared with a marriage in which you take on extensive responsibility and share table and bed with each other.

The community of responsibility is a model for people who “don't share the bed, but the table - but with an actual and personal closeness that goes beyond a pure business relationship”.

In order to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy, he considers the entry in a register at the registry office to be the best way, says Buschmann.

A solution before the notary would also be conceivable.

Not everyone thinks this is a good idea. "Above all, it remains unclear whether there is even a need for such a completely new legal institution," says Günter Krings, the legal policy spokesman for the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag. For stronger information and representation rights of people who take responsibility for one another without marriage, there is no need for a new family law model, but only unbureaucratic reforms of freedom of contract. With a "marriage light" one does not only risk a tangible conflict with Article 6 of the Basic Law, which protects marriage in particular, but also has to create a highly complex new set of rules. Because: "Anyone who wants a new legal institution similar to marriage must define permanent rights and obligations and also develop a particularly comprehensive law on divorce and the consequences of divorce."