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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Curious Relationship Of Marriage And Freedom, Katherine M. Franke
The Curious Relationship Of Marriage And Freedom, Katherine M. Franke
Faculty Scholarship
Marriage is surely at a crossroad, as the chapters in this volume so richly attest. In fact, marriage may be at more than one crossroad, some pointing toward new, uncharted terrain, others amounting to intersections we have visited before. My principal interest in exploring this dynamic moment in the evolution of the institution of marriage is to better understand why and how today's marriage equality movement for same-sex couples might benefit from lessons learned by African Americans when they too were allowed to marry for the first time in the immediate post–Civil War era. I find it curious that the …
Regulatory Fictions: On Marriage And Countermarriage, Elizabeth F. Emens
Regulatory Fictions: On Marriage And Countermarriage, Elizabeth F. Emens
Faculty Scholarship
Debates about marriage currently capture much public attention. Scholars have pushed beyond the question of whether gays are worthy of marriage to ask whether marriage is worthy of gays. The present moment of questioning marriage in its current form may be brief Thus, we should take this opportunity to imagine the widest possible range of alternatives to our current marriage regime – what I call countermarriage regimes. This Essay draws on two unlikely sources of legal innovation to expand our thinking about marriage alternatives: literature and anti-gay law. Literature offers an array of countermarriage regimes, including exploding marriage, three-strikes marriage, …
Familial Norms And Normality, Clare Huntington
Familial Norms And Normality, Clare Huntington
Faculty Scholarship
Social norms exert a powerful influence on families. They shape major life decisions, such as whether to marry and how many children to have, as well as everyday decisions, such as how to discipline children and divide household labor. Emotion is a defining feature of these familial social norms, giving force and content to norms in contexts as varied as reproductive choice, parenting, and same-sex relationships. These emotion-laden norms do not stand apart from the law. Falling along a continuum of involvement that ranges from direct regulation to choice architecture, state sway over social norms through their emotional valence is …
Monogamy's Law: Compulsory Monogamy And Polyamorous Existence, Elizabeth F. Emens
Monogamy's Law: Compulsory Monogamy And Polyamorous Existence, Elizabeth F. Emens
Faculty Scholarship
Right now, marriage and monogamy feature prominently on the public stage. Efforts to lift prohibitions on same-sex marriage in this country and abroad have inspired people on all sides of the political spectrum to speak about the virtues of monogamy's core institution and to express views on who should be included within it. The focus of this article is different. Like an "unmannerly wedding guest," this article invites the reader to pause amidst the whirlwind of marriage talk and to think critically about monogamy and its alternatives.
Marriage, Cohabitation, And Collective Responsibility For Dependency, Elizabeth S. Scott
Marriage, Cohabitation, And Collective Responsibility For Dependency, Elizabeth S. Scott
Faculty Scholarship
Marriage has fallen on hard times. Although most Americans say that a lasting marriage is an important part of their life plans, the institution no longer enjoys its former exclusive status as the core family form. This is so largely because social norms that regulate family life and women's social roles have changed. A century (or even a couple of generations) ago, marriage was a stable economic and social union that, for the most part, lasted for the joint lives of the spouses. It was the only option for a socially sanctioned intimate relationship and was the setting in which …