Abstract

The Author argues that individual rights of civil partners have to be considered with a broad perspective putting it in the context of family as an institutionalised relation. The protection of individual social rights of partners gives civil partnerships an institutional dimension. In fact, if such protection were granted a new model of family would be introduced as an alternative to that foreseen by the Italian Constitution. Civil partnerships imply greater advantages in terms of rights, but also imply less duties compared to matrimony. The author argues that the protection of civil partnerships strongly diverges with the provisions of the Constitution and yet the latter has not been amended.