# The Civil Partnership (Opposite-sex Couples) Regulations 2019, Regulation 12: Legitimacy of children of civil partners


(1) The Legitimacy Act 1976 is amended as follows.
(2) Before section 1 insert—
“Legitimacy of children of civil partners
A1. (1) A child is legitimate by virtue of a civil partnership between the natural parents of the child if, had the civil partnership been a marriage (and all other circumstances were the same), the child would have been legitimate at common law by virtue of the marriage.
(2) The presumption of common law that a child born to a woman during her marriage to a man is also the natural child of her spouse applies equally in relation to a child born to a woman during her civil partnership with a man.”.
(3) In section 1—
(a) in the heading, “after “void marriages” insert “and civil partnerships”;
(b) in subsection (1)—
(i) after “void marriage” insert “or a void civil partnership”;
(ii) after “celebration of the marriage” insert “, or the formation of the civil partnership,”;
(iii) after “that the marriage” insert “or civil partnership”;
(c) in subsection (3), after “marriage” insert “or civil partnership”;
(d) in subsection (4)—
(i) after “a child” insert “of a void marriage”;
(ii) after “Family Law Reform Act 1987,” insert “or a child of a void civil partnership (whenever born),”;
(iii) after “void marriage” insert “or civil partnership”;
(iv) after “celebration of the marriage” insert “, or the formation of the civil partnership,”;
(v) after “that the marriage” insert “or civil partnership”.
(4) In section 2—
(a) in the heading, after “marriage” insert “or civil partnership”;
(b) after “marry” insert “or become civil partners of”;
(c) after “marriage”, in the first place it occurs (after the heading), insert “or civil partnership”;
(d) after “date of marriage” insert “or the date of the formation of the civil partnership”;
(e) for “date of the marriage” substitute “that date”.
(5) In section 3, in subsection (1)—
(a) after “marry” insert “or become civil partners of”;
(b) after “marriage”, in each place it occurs, insert “or civil partnership”.
(6) In Schedule 1—
(a) in paragraph 4, after sub-paragraph (3) insert—
“(4) Section 1 does not affect any matter referred to in sub-paragraph (2) or (3) so far as it applies to a child of a void civil partnership.”;
(b) after paragraph 5 insert—
“5A. Nothing in this Act, except for section 2A, legitimates a person born before the date on which the Civil Partnership (Opposite-sex Couples) Regulations 2019 came into force by virtue of a civil partnership formed by the person’s parents before that date.”.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2019/9780111190784/regulation/12 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/draft-civil-partnership-opposite-sex-couples-regulations-2019/regulation-12
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.