The transformations of Belgian law

Between 1998 and 2007, the Belgian law of persons and of the family was transformed by several laws.

1. Euthanasia

This involves intentionally ending the life of another, at his or her request. The decriminalisation of euthanasia by the law of 28 May responds to a social demand and takes a place in a new hierarchy of values: respect for the autonomy of the patient takes precedence over defending life at any cost, this also includes a qualitative point of view.

2. Same-sex marriage

Opening marriage to homosexual couples has not been achieved without ideological trauma. Adversaries to this law of 13 February 2003 believed that opening to everyone the institution of marriage would undermine its legal and symbolic reach.

3. Legal cohabitation

The law of 23 November 1998 created a kind of Belgian ‘PACS’ (pacte civil de solidarité – civil solidarity pact). It grants couples (heterosexual or homosexual) a certain protection of property. It allows an unmarried cohabitee to inherit (law of 28 March 2007) and offers many tax advantages (succession rights). Moreover, legal cohabitation is also open to persons (e.g.: brothers and sisters) in addition to couples joined in an emotional and sexual relationship.

4. Divorce

The law of 27 April 2007 has objectivised divorce law: the dissolution of the marriage is no longer the result of a fault of one of the spouses, but the remedy for a irremediable disunity of the spouses (Divorce: the new law).

5. Filial status

The law of 1 July 2006 seeks to modernise Belgian law through several objectives: equality between maternal and paternal filial status, end of the hegemony of the marital link, increased importance of biological foundation of filial status and central role given to the interest of the child. Thus, for example, the presumption of paternity of the husband is from now on set aside, even though the marriage is not dissolved, if the marital link is slack. In concrete terms, for example, if the child was born more than 300 days after the spouses have registered at different addresses, residence will not be that of the husband, unless the two spouses declare otherwise. In response, the law gives the biological father rights of action. The latter can from now on contest the paternity of the husband to establish his own paternity.

6. Internal, international adoption and opening up to same-sex couples

Internal (that is, between Belgian citizens) and international forms of adoption were reformed by a law of 24 April 2003, to harmonise Belgian law with international principles. However, the reform that marks out Belgium in the global context, following a few forerunner countries, is certainly the opening to homoparentality by adoption (law of 18 May 2006). The choice was made not to refuse opening adoption to homosexual couples in the interests of the child, but rather to allow, by transferring to a judge and the competent services, the concrete assessment of the interest of each child involved in a homoparental family that is being established.

7. Residence of the child and parental authority

By the law of 18 July 2006 on equal residence and on parental authority, the legislator is mainly attempting to remedy the unpredictable nature of judicial decisions imposed by different courts of the country by setting up equal residence (shared time) as the reference model that, at the request by at least one of the parents, must be examined as a priority by the court. If it is refused, the judge should address the subject in special reasons. The new law also strives to increase the efficacy (respect, in the facts) of decisions on issues of residence.