Jurisprudence Commons^™

Marriage And The Good Of Obligation, Scott T. Fitzgibbon

Scott T. FitzGibbon

Marriage is obligatory. This is not to say, of course, that bachelorhood must be avoided or that everyone ought to get married. The point, rather, is that those who do wed form a relationship which embraces obligation as a fundamental component ("commitment norms," as Professor Elizabeth Scott has put it). This article aims to show why this is a good thing, and fundamentally so. Marriage and other affiliations, it seems, may involve obligation in two basic ways. The first way is instrumentally. The projects of married life require long-term commitment and fixity of purpose: raising children and paying off the …