Abandonment and its effects as a cause for the termination of a De Facto Union (Review)

Abstract

In Ecuador, de facto unions aim to guarantee the equality of rights and opportunities established in the Constitution, issues that should be promoted with regimes derived from it, as a legal institution. This establishes the need to propose as a general objective: Critically argue the violation caused by the absence of legal regulation in the Ecuadorian Civil Code regarding abandonment as a cause for the termination of de facto unions, in the principles of equity, equality, and legal efficiency in the civil code. So, under a qualitative methodological approach and with scientific methods of the same nature, such as exegetical, inductive, and analytical-synthetic. The scientific results obtained indicate that, without a doubt, the insufficient legal regulations in certain situations and completely absent in others, in civil procedures, as well as the lack of regulation concerning abandonment as a cause for the termination of de facto unions, are violating the principles of equity, equality, and legal efficiency and harming both judicial decisions in these cases and the rights of the individuals involved. Therefore, a legislative reform to the Ecuadorian Civil Code and the Law Regulating Cohabitation in Ecuador is proposed.