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Full-Text Articles in Law
Marriage And The Elephant: State Regulation Of Intimate Relationships Between Adults , Maxine Eichner
Marriage And The Elephant: State Regulation Of Intimate Relationships Between Adults , Maxine Eichner
ExpressO
This essay considers the current debate in legal theory over the future of marriage. Should the state, as some scholars argue, privilege marriage because of the benefits it provides to society? Or should it, as others argue, distance itself from relationships between adults on the ground that adults should be left to order their own affairs? The essay argues that scholars involved in this debate have reached such diametrically different conclusions from one another because each side has focused on a particular, narrow range of goods at issue in these relationships. Relationships between adults, however, implicate a number of important …
The Pocahontas Exception: The Exemption Of American Indian Ancestry From Racial Purity Law, Kevin Noble Maillard
The Pocahontas Exception: The Exemption Of American Indian Ancestry From Racial Purity Law, Kevin Noble Maillard
ExpressO
“The Pocahontas Exception” confronts the legal existence and cultural fascination with the eponymous “Indian Grandmother.” Laws existed in many states that prohibited marriage between whites and nonwhites to prevent the “quagmire of mongrelization.” Yet, this racial protectionism, as ingrained in law, blatantly exempted Indian blood from the threat to white racial purity. In Virginia, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 made exceptions for whites of mixed descent who proudly claimed Native American ancestry from Pocahontas. This paper questions the juridical exceptions made for Native American ancestry in antimiscegenation statues, and analyzes the concomitant exemptions in contemporary social practice. With increasing …
Marriage And The Elephant: The Liberal Democratic State’S Regulation Of Intimate Relationships Between Adults , Maxine Eichner
Marriage And The Elephant: The Liberal Democratic State’S Regulation Of Intimate Relationships Between Adults , Maxine Eichner
ExpressO
This essay considers the current debate in legal theory over the stance that the state should adopt toward intimate relationships between adults. Should the state, as some scholars argue, privilege marriage because of the benefits it provides to society? Or should it, as others argue, distance itself from relationships between adults on the ground that adults should be left to order their own affairs? The essay argues that scholars involved in this debate have reached such diametrically different conclusions from one another because each side has focused on a particular, narrow range of goods at issue in these relationships. Relationships …
Rescuing Children From The Marriage Movement: The Case Against Marital Restrictions On Adoption And Assisted Reproduction, Richard F. Storrow
Rescuing Children From The Marriage Movement: The Case Against Marital Restrictions On Adoption And Assisted Reproduction, Richard F. Storrow
ExpressO
Much of the current cultural debate about marriage in the United States focuses on the need for children to be raised by heterosexual married couples. In the current atmosphere, it is important to examine how marriage functions in contexts where parent-child relationships are determined by more than just genetics and marital presumptions. This Article argues that the favoritism toward marriage in adoption and assisted reproduction relates neither to the purposes of marriage nor to child welfare. Part I subjects marital restrictions on assisted reproduction to an interpretivist microscope, and Part II undertakes a comprehensive comparison of step-parent adoption and second-parent …