Rights and responsibilities

The theme of rights and responsibilities runs throughout the Act, the commentary that surrounds it and the parliamentary debates. The Act itself is characterised as ‘a package of rights and responsibilities’[120] and as aiming to ‘balance the responsibilities of caring for and maintaining a partner with a package of rights for example, in the area of inheritance’.[121] This ideal of balance — between, for example, care and money — is prevalent in the explanatory material. The explicit logic is that one does not receive rights without the taking on of responsibilities. Moreover, the implicit assumption is that one will be less likely to take on responsibilities towards others (such as care) unless rights are accrued. We find here a very utilitarian notion of rights and responsibilities in which the two are almost quantifiable and measurable to achieve a perfect balance. As the govern­ment makes clear: ‘The registration of a civil partnership involves both legal obliga­tions as well as legal protections. It would not be appropriate for couples to gain all the rights without any of the responsibilities.’[122]