Opposite-sex civil partnerships in England and Wales ? Let's wait and see !

In January 2017 the Civil Partnership Act (Amendment) Bill 2016–17, which proposed extending civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples, had its second reading in Parliament. The debate was adjourned until May 2017 and due to the dissolution of Parliament, made no further progress. In the meantime, the legal challenge initiated by Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan in relation to the same matter, was dismissed by the Court of Appeal (Steinfeld and Keidan v Secretary of State for Education [2017] EWCA Civ 81, [2017] FLR (forthcoming and reported at [2017] Fam Law 389)). Permission to appeal to the Supreme Court was granted in August 2017. This article examines the decisions of the High Court and Court of Appeal in Steinfeld and Keidan and considers the consequence of preserving civil partnerships as a same-sex institution, in the light of recent developments, such as the publication of data regarding the uptake of civil partnerships since same-sex marriage was legalised and the introduction of mixed-sex partnerships in the Isle of Man.