Abstract
This chapter focuses on the legal regulation of the unmarried family. It argues that cohabiting dependency-workers are particularly susceptible to relational vulnerability owing to the lack of legal remedies on relationship breakdown. The property law framework that cohabitants are forced to rely on is based on liberal principles of autonomy and state restraint. Performing dependency-work in the context of an intimate relationship is usually insufficient to prove a beneficial share in the home. A discourse analysis of the case law reveals that the judiciary is heavily influenced by notions of female domesticity and altruism, disadvantaging and marginalising dependency-workers. By contrast, the court often attributes male claimants with commercial motivations, even in intimate relational contexts.
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Gordon-Bouvier, E. (2020). Vulnerability, Law, and the Unmarried Family. In: Relational Vulnerability. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61358-7_5
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