Hungarian law and practice of civil partnerships with special regard to same-sex couples

Abstract

Cohabitation is a factual question in Hungarian law (living in a financial and emotional community in a common household), it does not constitute civil status, and is extended to same-sex couples, too. The default property regime is “participation of acquisitions.” While the constitutional notion of marriage in Hungary covers the conjugal union of a man and a woman, registered partnership (reserved for same-sex couples) has existed since 2009, the latter constitutes a civil status and has the same legal effects as marriage except the presumption of paternity, the possibility of joint adoption and of taking part in artificial human reproduction, and the right to use each other’s name or a joint family name. The default property regime is “community of property”.