Cohabitation can cause legal problems the same way marriage can, particularly if the relationship ends.
Cohabitation is bad enough, in Mr Schrameck's view, and Mr Chirac has made it worse.
Cohabitation, in the cases where assets need to be protected, is more than just having a roommate.
One answer comes from the Church of England, which has inveighed against both civil partnerships and cohabitation.
When the president and the parliament are from different parties in France it is known as "cohabitation".
He said that Labour members in the GLA were engaged in a "policy of cohabitation" with Mr Livingstone.
Across town, his stout buddy, who is married to someone named Debbee, rhapsodizes about the pleasures of cohabitation.
The fact that cohabitation is so acceptable means that those who do marry are a more select group.
Among the poor, cohabitation is seen as normal and single parenthood merely regrettable.
Just under half thought cohabitation showed just as much commitment as getting married.
Their first attempt at political cohabitation, after the 1995 election, ended in acrimony.
Although statistics are sparse, demographers reckon Britain has a higher rate of inter-ethnic cohabitation and marriage than other western nations.
She said that before the elections, all of the left bloc parties endorsed a document promising cohabitation rights for gay couples.
"Long-term commitments are more broadly defined and for many, can mean cohabitation without a legal document or public declaration, " she said.
Where both sexes are the same, however, is in their cohabitation patterns.
And on the other fringe of the debate, Polly Toynbee of the Guardian deplores suggesting that marriage is in some way better than cohabitation.
One risk for Mr Sarkozy, however, is that Mr Chirac will be condemned to yet another period of cohabitation after the 2002 parliamentary election.
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This is largely a side-effect of the rapid rise in cohabitation.
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But she warned that there may be some watering down of the policy, with moves to give individuals rights within cohabitation, rather than full partnership rights.
If the law is changed and cohabitation becomes more like marriage for better and for worse will such people flee even further from anything that smacks of commitment?
If the left fails to win, France would enter into a period of "cohabitation", in which the presidency and the lower house are controlled by political rivals.
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In China's cities, divorce and cohabitation may be more common.
Cohabitation leads to childbearing with greater frequency, the study found.
She is confident that cohabitation rights will be given to gay people during this parliament, but she is fighting for gay people to get a full civil ceremony, like in Spain.
Forced into political cohabitation after the 1997 election, when a rejuvenated Solidarity movement got into government again, the president has endeared himself to many middle-of-the-road Poles by battling away for reconciliation.
He has navigated the dangerous waters of political cohabitation.
If Mr Basescu wins, he can opt for cohabitation, or he may try to install a minority centre-right government that will fall in due course, paving the way for another general election.
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Since these tax rules only work on unwinding a legal marriage and not on any form of cohabitation, they remain a gross tax inequity the gay marriage debate has never thoroughly addressed.
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Almost before the mayor had time to utter "I didn't know you cared Toby, " Lord Harris added that this was cohabitation based on the "French presidential model rather than in the DSS sense".
In cases where there is a conflict of goals and desires, the On-Off relationship can be the perfect arrangement for a couple not looking for marriage or even cohabitation (yes, these couples exist).
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