Rank­ings of CMS Switzer­land in The Leg­al 500 EMEA 2023 Edi­tion

Cham­bers and Part­ners has pub­lished its rank­ings of lead­ing law firms and law­yers in the High Net Worth Guide 2022. Our firm and our law­yers are lis­ted in both rank­ings for Switzer­land.

Since the Swiss Civil Code entered in­to force in 1912, Swiss mar­riage and fam­ily law has evolved dur­ing time due to the shift­ing views re­gard­ing equal­ity between the parties in­volved. The in­tro­duc­tion of the re­gistered part­ner­ship in 2007 cre­ated a spe­cial civil status for re­gistered same-sex couples. While this was a pro­gress, it did not lead to an equal treat­ment com­pared to mat­ri­mony. There­fore, a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive was launched in 2013 and called on the le­gis­lat­or to open the mar­riage to all couples, re­gard­less of their sexu­al ori­ent­a­tion. On 26 Septem­ber 2021, the mar­riage for all won thump­ing ap­prov­al of the Swiss elect­or­ate. This makes Switzer­land the 30th coun­try world­wide – and one of the last in West­ern Europe – to ex­tend civil mar­it­al status to male-male and fe­male-fe­male couples.As of 1 Ju­ly 2022, mat­ri­mony is open to same-sex couples in Switzer­land. It is no longer pos­sible to es­tab­lish new re­gistered part­ner­ships. Nev­er­the­less, ex­ist­ing re­gistered part­ner­ships will con­tin­ue to ex­ist, provided they are not con­ver­ted in­to a mar­riage by the couple's joint de­clar­a­tion at a civil re­gis­trar of their choice.As a de­fault rule of law, re­gistered part­ner­ships were sub­ject to the rules of sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty (ab­sent over­rid­ing con­trac­tu­al pro­vi­sions agreed-upon by the couple). Un­der the new law, the re­gime of par­ti­cip­a­tion in ac­quired prop­erty shall ap­ply to same-sex mar­riages as a stand­ard rule of law. As a res­ult, the po­s­i­tion of the sur­viv­ing spouse is strengthened.If a re­gistered couple con­verts their part­ner­ship to mar­riage, the rules on par­ti­cip­a­tion in ac­quired prop­erty will ap­ply ret­ro­act­ively un­less the couple has pre­vi­ously entered in­to a nup­tial agree­ment or, al­tern­at­ively, changes the ap­plic­a­tion of the stat­utory law by con­tract. Hence, an ex­ist­ing nup­tial agree­ment re­mains val­id bey­ond the con­ver­sion.With the pos­sib­il­ity to marry, same-sex couples ac­quire full ad­op­tion rights. They may ad­opt the child of their part­ner and may also ad­opt jointly.Fi­nally, the sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­iz­a­tion pro­ced­ure is now also open to mar­ried same-sex couples. 

Rank­ings of CMS Switzer­land in The Leg­al 500 EMEA 2022 edi­tion

1. Are prox­ies used in con­tin­gency plan­ning? A per­son cap­able of act­ing, i.e. any­one who is at least 18 years of age and has ca­pa­city of judge­ment, may grant a proxy. In Switzer­land, prox­ies are fre­quently...