live common-law – that’s a marriage, right?
No. A marriage is not a common-law relationship. There is no such thing as a common law marriage. People are used to saying “common-law marriage” or “common-law relationship,” but those are not legal concepts. Modern Alberta law has the legal concept of adult interdependent relationship (AIR). An AIR covers a lot of what people generally understand by a common-law relationship but is not the same thing. Modern Alberta law is full of references to AIR and adult interdependent partners. The definition of an AIR is found in the Adult Interdependent Relationships Act.
