Presently, Slovakian legislation does not provide a legal framework to allow same-sex LGBT couples to formally and legally have their relationships recognised in any form, marriage or registered partnership. As family lawyers we can arrange some form of legal actions and documents stipulating the rights of partners using existing frameworks and European judgments.
The European Court found in its judgment of Schalk and Kopf v. Thus in the case of Taddeucci and McCall v. Oliari and others v. Italy the Court established a positive obligation upon the States to implement a general legal framework regulating same-sex relationships, regardless whether civil unions already exist for different-sex couples.
It ruled that the legal protection then available in Italy to same-sex couples failed to provide for the core needs relevant to a couple in a stable committed relationship. These agreements, however, failed to provide for some basic needs fundamental to the regulation of a stable relationship between a couple, such as mutual material support, maintenance obligations and inheritance rights.
Moreover, such agreements were open to any cohabiting persons which meant that they did not primarily aim to protect same-sex couples. Furthermore, they required the couple concerned to be cohabiting, whereas the ECtHR had already accepted that cohabitation was not a prerequisite for the existence of a stable union between partners given that many couples — whether married or in a registered partnership — experienced periods during which they conducted their relationship at long distance, for example for professional reasons.
Ultimately, in the recent Chamber judgment in the case of Fedotova v. Russia, the Court held that the Russian State had violated Article 8 ECHR by failing to provide same-sex couples with the opportunity to have their relationships formally acknowledged in the form of a marriage, or any other form.
