recensione a Gloria Viarengo (cur.), Unioni di fatto. Dal diritto romano ai diritti attuali, Torino 2016, pp. 150

The book collects the acts of the International Convention regarding Unioni di fatto: dal diritto romano ai diritti attuali held in Imperia in 2015. Common-law marriage – an ancient social phenomenon – as a stable coexistence between two sentimentally related subjects who can not, or do not want, to join in marriage. In the European context, the reaction of individual legal systems has been heterogeneous and the different countries have tried to strike a balance between legitimate unions and other types of union, both in relation to children and regarding the protection of property rights and successors. The responses have been different and adapted to the different legal systems. While in many European countries non-marital unions have long been protected, a long process of maturing has been necessary in Italy before reaching a law on common-law marriage. The curator of the volume, Gloria Viarengo, brings together significant contributions that deepen the theme of coexistence and common-law marriage from the point of view of the history of Roman, medieval, modern and contemporary European law, with specific attention to the countries that have long protected such cohabitation forms. (Germany, France, England).