Prof. Dr. Elise Goossens (University of Antwerp): Navigating Legal Protections for Cohabiting and Economic Relationships: A Critical Comparison

About the speaker:
Elise Goossens is Assistant Professor of Civil Law in Context at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). Her research covers international and comparative family and family property law; and (private) law and gender. In the past, Elise’s positions included postdoctoral and Phd researcher at the KU Leuven and lecturer in law at Stanford Law School.

About the topic:
While many jurisdictions offer legal protections for ‘weaker’ parties in economic relationships, this is not the case to the same extent for cohabiting relationships. In economic relationships, there are numerous examples of protective legal rules that seek to mitigate or compensate power imbalances between the parties. In cohabiting relationships, such protective rules are generally much more sparse, or even completely absent. In case a relationship hits rough ground, one is thus often better off as a business partner than as a cohabiting partner. This discrepancy raises questions about the underlying rationales and assumptions that shape legal protections in the family and the economic sphere, and about the value(s) that we attach to the family and the market.

About the Series:
‘Family Law At Four’ offers employees of the Institute and guest speakers the opportunity to present their research on current issues of family law, always at “4 pm”. The event series is aimed at all academics and practitioners interested in family law.