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Alternative Legal Marriages / Marriage-Like Statuses

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Killjoy Boffin
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Apr 21, 2015
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This tangential topic has been spun off into its own thread.

My brother had a dog called Samson, which his kids innocently rendered as Sambo. He lived in an area with many Afro-Caribbean families and after Sambo got out a couple of times, Bro decided calling 'Sambo! Sambo!' was probably not the best idea. It was shortened to 'Bo'.

You could get away with that in Sweden with just a few funny looks - a sambo is someone you're cohabiting with (unmarried). Very common.

https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=6251716

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samboförhållande
 
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You could get away with that in Sweden with just a few funny looks - a sambo is someone you're cohabiting with (unmarried). Very common.

https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=6251716

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samboförhållande

Aha now I already knew tha! Learned it many years ago at school when reading Swedish books in translation.

At the time cohabiting was still known here as 'living in sin' and there was no specific term for an unmarried partner, unlike in Sweden. We Brits weren't about to adopt that word though.
 
Your practical cousins across the pond called it "common law marriage" until we got more civilized.
Don't know how common, or how legal it was tho'. That may have been only in more isolated areas anyway. Everywhere else they just pretended it didn't exist.
 
Your practical cousins across the pond called it "common law marriage" until we got more civilized.
Don't know how common, or how legal it was tho'. That may have been only in more isolated areas anyway. Everywhere else they just pretended it didn't exist.
'Common law marriage' has had no standing in Britain since 1753. It stayed around a while longer in Scotland.
 
"Common law" marriage and the Swedish "sambo" status are both legally recognized forms of cohabitation relationships other than civil / formal marriage, but they're not the same thing.

Common law marriage (at least in the USA) is a legally actionable form of marriage established by a couple's representation of themselves as married absent formal ceremony and / or paperwork involving civil or religious bureaucracy. More simply stated - a common law marriage is a legal marriage enacted by alternative means. A legally established common law marriage accords the couple the same legal rights and privileges as a formal marriage within the jurisdiction in which it was established and all other jurisdictions which recognize marriages enacted elsewhere. (All 50 states recognize legal marriages established in another state.)

Sweden's "sambo", in contrast, is a legally recognized status distinct from "marriage" (as defined by law). Registration of a sambo relationship affords only the rights and privileges prescribed for this distinct sambo status, and these are different from the rights and privileges accorded by a marriage. For example, there are differences with respect to tax deductions, joint property presumptions and child custody.
 
i dont believe in opposite-sex marriage either
 
"Common law" marriage and the Swedish "sambo" status are both legally recognized forms of cohabitation relationships other than civil / formal marriage, but they're not the same thing.

There's no such thing as 'common law marriage' in Britain.
 
There's no such thing as 'common law marriage' in Britain.

Yes, I know. There is such a thing in other parts of the world.
 
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