A Civil Contract

A Civil Contract is a Regency romance novel by Georgette Heyer, first published in 1961. Set in 1814-1815, it is also a historical novel and follows the general pattern of storytelling of Heyer's other novels. The romantic plot centers on a viscount who reluctantly enters a marriage of convenience with a wealthy commoner's daughter.

Plot summary

Viscount Lynton comes home to find himself the heir to debts after the death of his father. With a mother and two sisters to support, and lacking any means of restoring his family's wealth, he is facing disaster. When he visits his solicitor to discuss selling the family home, a marriage of convenience is suggested as an alternative. Though reluctant, Lynton meets with Mr Chawleigh, a common Cit, and with Jenny, his plain and exquisitely shy daughter, and eventually agrees to be married. It is a simple contract; Jenny gains a title and Lynton receives enough money to take care of his family obligations and save his estate. However, he remains in love with Julia Oversley, who is the exact opposite of Jenny. While Julia is ethereally beautiful and elegant, Jenny is plain and dowdy. The marriage is not a very happy one, although Jenny, who has been secretly in love with Lynton for a long time, tries to make his life as comfortable as she can. In turn, Lynton, who is an honorable gentleman, resolves to bury his feelings for Julia and protect his new wife as he launches her into society. His father-in-law, Mr Chawleigh, is well-meaning but lacks the social graces with which Lynton is familiar and thereby makes it difficult for Lynton to forget he is in his debt. The young man often wishes he were free of his obligations to him.

Civil union

A civil union, also referred to by a variety of other names, is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage. These unions have been established in a number of countries since the late 1990s, often developing from less formal domestic partnership legislation. In Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, they have since been replaced, and in a number of other countries supplemented, by same-sex marriage. Civil unions are often seen by campaigners as a "first step" towards legalizing marriage for same-sex couples. While civil unions are predominantly established for both opposite-sex and same-sex couples, in a number of countries they are available to same-sex couples only.

Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in several, mostly developed, countries in order to provide legal recognition of relationships formed by unmarried same-sex couples and to afford them rights, benefits, tax breaks, and responsibilities similar or identical to those of legally married couples. In Brazil, civil unions were first created for opposite-sex couples in 2002, and then expanded to include same-sex unions through judicial decision nine years later.

Civil Contract (Armenia)

Civil Contract is a public–political union, which was established on July 24, 2013 in Yerevan, Armenia. The governing board of the contract was formed on December 9, 2013.

About the civil contract

“Civil contract" came to be known for the first time on January 23, 2013 when MP Nikol Pashinyan from the opposition block publicized a project in the newspaper "Haykakan Zhamanak" about establishing a new public-political union. For several months afterwards the text of the civil contract was discussed on different platforms, with different organizations and individuals actively engaged in public-political life of the Republic of Armenia. On July 24 the new updated version of the "Civil Contract" was publicized and, hence, the establishment of a new political union in Armenia was announced.

“Civil Contract" announces that until its first Treaty Conference the text of the contract will be worked out and undergo amendments since some points of the document need comments and clarification. The proclamation of those fundamentals will be followed by the creation of a detailed road map for the development of each of the mentioned fields.