Exporting and Importing Domestic Partnerships: Some Conflict-of-Laws Questions and Concerns

This article is about conflicts of laws questions relating to domestic partnerships. The article points out that since there will be states that recognize domestic partnerships because the American Law Institute has expressed approval of domestic partnerships, there will be conflict of laws problems if not all states recognize it. The purpose of this article is to describe some of the conflicts issues that arise when parties to domestic partnerships have, or develop, contacts with more than one state. The article does so by explaining the two broad areas in which these conflicts will arise and by showing that there is even more uncertainty when the issue involves both opposite sex and same sex domestic partnerships.