Behöver vi gifta oss? : En jämförelse av den rättsliga ställningen för en efterlevande sambo i Sverige, Norge och Danmark.

Sammanfattning: There are various forms of living arrangements in the modern society. Cohabit-ing has since the 1970s become an increasingly more common way of living in the Nordic countries. In Sweden alone there are approximately 1,5 million peo-ple living in cohabitation relationships and they can be found amongst all social classes and ages. Cohabitants are given a certain form of economic legal protec-tion by the Swedish cohabitation act if the relationship ends by the others death. Thus, the cohabitees act aims to give the weaker party some security. The heterogenetic character of the group also means a large variation regarding economic circumstances. Due to this, cohabitees will be differently affected in an economic sense if the cohabitation ends. Considering that cohabiting has become an increasingly accepted way of life, the demand for a regulation that thoroughly protects a surviving cohabitant financially, has also increased. The question of whether a legal inheritance right should be granted in some form has been discussed in Nordic doctrine. Moreover, motions have been put for-ward in the Swedish Parliament with proposals on how the surviving cohabitees legal position can be strengthened. Not least, a more extensive compliance protection in the presence of joint children has been requested since it is usually cohabitants with joint children who tend to be in the greatest need of financial protection. While Denmark, Norway and Sweden have similar social, cultural, and economic preconditions, legislators have chosen to take different paths when enacting laws. In Norway, a surviving cohabitee has been given a limited inheritance right under certain conditions, and a right to stay in an undivided estate. However, he or she has not yet been given a right to appeal for a divi-sion of the household goods nor the joint dwelling. This right is given in Swe-den and regulated in the Swedish Cohabitation act. In Denmark cohabitants have the possibility to draw up a will, in which they can choose to be equated with spouses, thus giving them further protection. This thesis will do a compar-ison of Swedish, Danish and Norwegian inheritance law. Furthermore, the aim is to examine whether the protection of a surviving cohabitee is sufficient and adapted to modern society or whether there are reasons to strengthen the pro-tection in Swedish legislation by importing solutions from the neighboring Nordic countries.