Unions estables de parella i darrers pronunciaments del Tribunal Constitucional

Abstract

This paper studies the Constitutional Court judgments regarding the laws of Navarra and Madrid on unmarried couples. The Court concludes that autonomous communities without their own civil law cannot legislate on unmarried couples. Conversely, those autonomous communities that have their own civil law can do so because it does not affect the States legislative power regarding marriage forms and rules on registration. However, the Court maintains that the law of Navarra violates the States competence to establish rules on the resolution of conflicts of laws and also the right to free development of personality and, accordingly, it declares some articles of the law unconstitutional. As a result of these judgments, it is possible to declare other autonomic laws unconstitutional. The Court draws the conclusion that unmarried couples have to formally express their will to form a couple to benefit from the associated rights. Nevertheless, if formal expression of the will to be a couple is needed, the Law on Unmarried Couples does not add anything in relation to marriage because both institutions require a formal act. The usefulness of the Law on Unmarried Couples resided in the possibility of benefitting from legal rights without the need for formalities like those required for marriage. Couples who trusted that the Law on Unmarried Couples would apply to them have to adjust their situation to this new constitutional interpretation and make a formal act to become a couple or to marry.