Couples don't need the law to tell them how to live together

Couples don't need the law to tell them how to live together

Years ago, I used to urge my students at Oxford to conduct their love affairs in silence. I told them that the laws that govern property ownership might depend on the way in which the title of their home is registered, but also on what is said in a relationship. So if those young men said to a woman: "Come and live with me and I will take care of you – you don't need your own place", they might have found that they were in debt to the tune of half the property when love came to an end. At least my students knew the pitfalls.