Law Commons^™

Back To The Future: Marriage And Divorce Under The 2017 Tax Act, Mark W. Cochran

Faculty Articles

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the 2017 Tax Act) significantly altered the federal tax consequences of marriage and divorce by mostly eliminating the so-called "marriage penalty" from the individual income tax rates and abolishing the deduction for alimony payments. These changes represent the latest congressional tinkering with issues that have persisted since the earliest days of the modem income tax, turning back the clock with regard to taxation for both married and divorced couples. For the first time, since the enactment of the Tax Reform Act of 1969, the rate brackets for married taxpayers filing joint returns …

The (Contingent) Value Of Autonomy And The Reflexivity Of (Some) Basic Goods, Adam J. Macleod

Faculty Articles

Many of the legal and policy issues about which people today get most exercised turn on a little-understood relationship between two fundamental principles. On one hand is the principle of autonomy, which, for reasons explored in this article, is often employed in defense of greater freedom and less government intervention in matters of morals and self-harmful conduct. On the other hand is respect for basic goods, those ends and purposes that constitute ultimate, underived, and intelligible reasons for rational action, and which include knowledge, human life, and community, among others. Basic goods provide reasons for human purposing and action (as …

Matrimonial Consent In Canon Law Juridical Aspects, Roberto Rosas

Faculty Articles

A valid marriage emerges thanks to the founding power of one sole efficient cause—consent. Marriage is a complex human reality; it encompasses physio-biological, psychological, personal, social, religious, moral, and judicial aspects. The essence and characteristics of marriage are determined by natural law. From here, Canon Law made an extraordinary effort, unknown by the other judicial codes, to investigate the natural demands of marriage, just as they are demanded by the dignity of the human being.

Consent is the only efficient cause of the matrimonial bond. It is generally accepted that the mutual consent of both of the contracting parties is …

Progress And Progression In Family Law, Martha Albertson Fineman

Faculty Articles

The process and nature of change in our family formation seems unlikely to be derailed. The policy question for those concerned with the institution of the family in today's world should not be how we can resuscitate marriage and thus save society, but rather how we can support all individuals who create intimate, caring relationships, regardless of the form of those relationships. Continued inattention to the social and economic dislocations and the emerging family needs produced in the wake of changes in family formation can be disastrous, not only to individual families, but also to society.

Of particular importance for …

Why Marriage?, Martha Albertson Fineman

Faculty Articles

Reflection on the prospect of varied, individualized possibilities for the meaning of marriage suggests, that in order to answer the question "why marriage?" we must first consider "what marriage?" or more succinctly, "what is marriage?" Questioning what marriage actually is calls attention to the institution's individualized and malleable nature. By contrast, a focus on "why marriage" highlights the societal function and rationale for the institution. I will discuss each question-the "what" as well as the "why" of marriage.