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A New Approach For Gay And Lesbian Domestic Partners: Legal Acceptance Through Relational Property Theory, Hara Jacobs

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

In the past twenty years, the number of couples living together on a long-term basis without marrying has dramatically increased. 1 With the increase in domestic partnerships 2 has come new litigation in which one scorned domestic partner sues the other, claiming a right to property procured during the relationship. Often, one partner brought more present or future financial resources to the relationship than the other. The wealthier partner may have placed some or all of the property acquired during the relationship in her name only for a variety of seemingly innocuous reasons (e.g., business expertise, tax benefits, facilitation of …