Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I History, Demographics, and Economics – Multiple Perspectives on Families
- Part II Empirical Research on Family Change
- Part III Family Policy and Law for the Twenty-First Century
- 10 Forsaking No Others
- 11 Why Marriage?
- 12 Essential to Virtue?
- 13 The Pluralistic Vision of Marriage
- Comments
- Index
- References
13 - The Pluralistic Vision of Marriage
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I History, Demographics, and Economics – Multiple Perspectives on Families
- Part II Empirical Research on Family Change
- Part III Family Policy and Law for the Twenty-First Century
- 10 Forsaking No Others
- 11 Why Marriage?
- 12 Essential to Virtue?
- 13 The Pluralistic Vision of Marriage
- Comments
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
In what manner should the state design institutions for couples and influence couples’ choices among these institutions? The current legal discourse is polarized between two opposite approaches to this question: one supporting public channeling, the other preferring private neutrality.
The public-channeling approach is based on a monolithic-perfectionist philosophy that posits the state's authority and duty to foster certain ways of life and to prefer them over others. In the spousal context, application of this approach requires regulating intimate relationships based mainly on public interests and shared moral values. The public-channeling approach perceives marriage as a public institution and stresses the state's role in steering couples into traditional, legal marriage.
By contrast, the private-neutral approach is based on a liberal-neutralist philosophy. According to this view, the liberal state must maintain a neutral approach toward various lifestyles and refrain from preferring one over another. The application of this approach to spousal law requires the state to respect the conjugal pattern selected by the parties and to refrain from attempts to channel couples toward any specific affiliative pattern. In its radical versions, this approach seeks to abolish marriage as a legal institution, or at the very least to replace the perception of marriage as a public institution with a contractual account of marriage.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Marriage at the CrossroadsLaw, Policy, and the Brave New World of Twenty-First-Century Families, pp. 260 - 284Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012
References
1993 Children's Adjustment to Divorce: Theories, Hypotheses and Empirical SupportJournal of Marriage and Family 55 23CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2002
2008 The Legal World of Unmarried Couples: Reflections on “de Facto Relationships” in Recent New Zealand LegislationVictoria University of Wellington Law Review 39 793Google Scholar
1966 The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of KnowledgeNew YorkAnchor Books.Google Scholar
2010 Private Ordering and Family LawJournal of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers 23 249Google Scholar
2001 Unmarried Partners and the Legacy of : The Regularization of Non-Marital Cohabitation: Rights and Responsibilities in the American Welfare StateNotre Dame Law Review 76 1265Google Scholar
1997 The Counterrevolution: A Critique of Recent Proposals to Reform No-Fault Divorce LawsStanford Law Review 49 607CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2006 Domestic Partnership and Default RulesReconceiving the FamilyNew YorkCambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
2001 Marriage, Divorce and the Abandoned Wife in Jewish Law: A Conceptual Understanding of the Agunah Problems in AmericaNew JerseyKtav Publishing HouseGoogle Scholar
2010 What Feminists Have to Lose in Same-Sex Marriage LitigationUCLA Law Review 57 1199Google Scholar
Why Evangelical Protestants Are Right When They Claim that State Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage Threatens Their Marriages and What the Law Should Do about ItSacred/Secular Divide: The Legal StoryPalo Alto, CAStanford University Press
1985 The “Legalization” of the Family: Toward a Policy of Supportive NeutralityUniversity of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 18 805Google Scholar
1996 What If? The Legal Consequences of Marriage and the Legal Needs of Lesbian and Gay Male CouplesMichigan Law Review 95 447CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1991 Longitudinal Studies of Effects of Divorce on Children in Great Britain and the United statesScience 252 1386CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2000 Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the NationCambridge, MAHarvard University PressGoogle Scholar
Pluralism and Perfectionism in Private LawColumbia Law Review 113
2010 Regulating Polygamy: Intimacy, Default Rules, and Bargaining for EqualityColumbia Law Review 110 1955Google Scholar
2006 Immoral Purposes: Marriage and the Genus of Illicit SexYale Law Journal 115 756CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2010 Sexing History and the Politics of the Right to MarryColumbia Law Review 110 1348Google Scholar
2007 Marriage and the Elephant: The Liberal Democratic State's Regulation of Intimate Relationships between AdultsHarvard Journal of Law & Gender 30 25Google Scholar
2004 Monogamy's Law: Compulsory Monogamy and Polyamorous ExistenceNew York University Review of Law & Social Change 29 277Google Scholar
2011 Regulatory Fictions: On Marriage and Counter-MarriageCalifornia Law Review 99 235Google Scholar
1995 The Neutered Mother, the Sexual Family and Other Twentieth Century TragediesNew YorkRoutledgeGoogle Scholar
1991 A Liberal Democratic Case for the Two-Parent FamilyThe Responsive Community 1 145Google Scholar
1991 Liberal Purpose – Goods, Virtues, and Diversity in the Liberal StateNew YorkCambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
1991 Why the Liberal State Can Promote Moral Ideals After AllHarvard Law Review 104 1350CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1983 Marriage: The Status of ContractUniversity of Pennsylvania Law Review 131 1039CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2005 Is Consent Necessary? An Evaluation of the Emerging Law of Cohabitant ObligationUCLA Law Review 52 815Google Scholar
2007 The Decline of Formal Marriage: Inevitable or ReversibleFamily Law Quarterly 41 491Google Scholar
1989 The Transformation of Family Law – State, Law and Family in the United States and Western EuropeChicagoUniversity of Chicago PressGoogle Scholar
1983 The Constitutional Status of Marriage, Kinship, and Sexual Privacy: Balancing the Individual and Social InterestsMichigan Law Review 81 463CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2004 Women in Israel: A State of Their OwnPhiladelphiaUniversity of Pennsylvania PressGoogle Scholar
2000 Cross Currents: Family Law and Policy in the U.S. and EnglandNew YorkOxford University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
2005 Cohabitation Law in Israel from the Perspective of a Civil Law Theory of the FamilyHaifaHaifa University PressGoogle Scholar
2008 The Best Interest of the Child and Spousal LawsThe Case for the Child: Towards a New AgendaCambridge, UKIntersentia PublishingGoogle Scholar
2008 A Potential Lesson from the Israeli Experience for the American Same-Sex Marriage DebateBrigham Young University Journal of Public Law 22 359Google Scholar
2009 A Liberal Analysis of Western Cohabitant LawFamily FinanceViennaJan Sramek VerlagGoogle Scholar
2010 Married against Their Will? Toward a Pluralist Regulation of Spousal RelationshipsWashington and Lee Law Review 66 1565Google Scholar
2012 The Liberal Transformation of Spousal Law: Past, Present and FutureTheoretical Inquiries in Law 13 15CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2007 Love, Marriage, and the Baby Carriage: Revisiting the Channeling Function of Family LawCardozo Law Review 28 2133Google Scholar
1994 Growing Up with a Single Parent: What Hurts, What HelpsCambridge, MAHarvard University PressGoogle Scholar
2002 A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Marriage as an InstitutionJournal of Economic Behavior & Organization 47 27CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1998 Louisiana's Covenant Marriage Statute: A First Step toward a More Robust Pluralism in Marriage and Divorce LawEmory Law Journal 47 929Google Scholar
2007 Multi-Tiered Marriage: Ideas and Influences from New York and Louisiana to the International CommunityVanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 40 135Google Scholar
1988 Putting Asunder: A History of Divorce in Western SocietyNew YorkCambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
2008 Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the LawBoston, MABeacon PressGoogle Scholar
1994 Ethics in the Public Domain: Essays in the Morality of Law and PoliticsNew YorkOxford University PressGoogle Scholar
1996 Democracy's Discontent: America in Search of a Public PhilosophyCambridge, MAHarvard University PressGoogle Scholar
1985 Moral Discourse and the Transformation of American Family LawMichigan Law Review 83 1803CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1994 Marriage, Morals, and the Law: No-Fault Divorce and Moral DiscourseUtah Law Review 1994 503Google Scholar
1990 Rational Decision Making about Marriage and DivorceVirginia Law Review 76 9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2000 Social Norms and the Legal Regulation of MarriageVirginia Law Review 86 1901CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2004 Marriage, Cohabitation and Collective Responsibility for DependencyUniversity of Chicago Legal Forum 2004 225Google Scholar
2006 Domestic Partnerships, Implied Contracts, and Law ReformReconceiving the Family7New YorkCambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
1995 Civil Marriage in Israel: The Case for ReformJerusalemJerusalem Institute for Israeli StudiesGoogle Scholar
1998 Louisiana's Covenant Marriage: Social Analysis and Legal ImplicationsLouisiana Law Review 59 63Google Scholar
2000 The Intervention of American Law in Jewish Divorce: A Pluralist AnalysisIsrael Law Review 34 170CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1994 Comparative and Historical Perspectives on Marriage, Divorce, and Family LifeUtah Law Review 1994 587Google Scholar
2000 The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier and Better Off FinanciallyNew YorkBroadway BooksGoogle Scholar
1989 Second Chances: Men, Women, and Children a Decade after DivorceNew YorkHoughton MifflinGoogle Scholar
2008 A Response to the “Conservative Case” for Same-Sex Marriage: Same-Sex Marriage and “The Tragedy of the CommonsBrigham Young University Journal of Public Law 22 441Google Scholar
1996 The Two-Parent Family in the Liberal State: The Case for Selective SubsidiesMichigan Journal of Race & Law 1 491Google Scholar
1985 The Divorce Revolution: The Unexpected Social and Economic Consequences for Women and Children in AmericaNew YorkSimon & SchusterGoogle Scholar
1997 From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western TraditionLouisville, KYWJK PressGoogle Scholar
2006 Deregulating Marriage: The Pro-Marriage Case for Abolishing Civil MarriageCardozo Law Review 27 1161Google Scholar
1976
1992
2010
- 6
- Cited by