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Full-Text Articles in Law
Grounded Applications: Feminism And Law At The Millennium, Katharine B. Silbaugh
Grounded Applications: Feminism And Law At The Millennium, Katharine B. Silbaugh
Faculty Scholarship
The conference topic is feminism in the twenty-first century, a dialogue between academics and practicing attorneys. The first order of business will be to resist the millennium invitation to come up with evermore novel, overarching formulations of the mission and means of feminism. At the end of the twentieth century we know quite a bit about the problems presented by feminists and the problems within feminism. We have had a long history of insightful intellectual discourse on questions of equality and on the meaning of gender. We also know that it takes time to absorb and apply broad insights in …
Marriage Contracts And The Family Economy, Katharine B. Silbaugh
Marriage Contracts And The Family Economy, Katharine B. Silbaugh
Faculty Scholarship
One simplified view of contract law is that the state enforces private bargains without looking into the substance of those bargains. From this contractual perspective marriage might look like a contract to exchange services and goods: love, money, the ability to have and raise children, housework, sex, emotional support, physical care in times of sickness, entertainment and so forth. But when the parties to a marriage put these terms in writing, courts only enforce the provisions governing money. This contract/family law rule of selective enforcement disproportionately benefits those who bring more money to a marriage, who are more likely to …