Communal life in the form of extramarital relationships are becoming more and more diverse, ranging from couples who oppose the traditional gender based division of labor that penetrates the institution of family register and marriage; couples who do intentionally do not register their marriage due to trends of couples who wish to be free from (legal) institutions; same sex marriage that is not legally recognized as marriage; couples who do not wish to have a stable or continuous relationship. As one can see clearly, it is becoming difficult to indicate all of these various types of relationships into the traditional conception of “relationships that can essentially be labeled marriage without registration (common law marriage)”.

Professor Ninomiya, who specializes in civil law, is particularly interested in the possibilities of legal protection for common law marriage and same sex marriage. He believes the grounds for legal protection for these types of extramarital relationship is the same as for legal marriage―the pursuit of happiness, and the right to self-determination. This line of thinking leads us to a bigger more philosophical issue of how to conceptualize family law: whether to understand the concept as being subject for a group, or as an obligation or rights of an individual.

Associate Professor Watanabe, who also specializes in civil law, does research on the system of legal protection for same sex couples, especially Registered Partnership Act in several European countries. We will reconsider the legal foundation for marriage from his perspective on same sex marriage.

We have the pleasure of inviting one of our very own, Ms. Oshima, as the commentator of this workshop. Ms. Oshima just completed her Masters thesis on the extramarital relationship in the case of France.