Marriage proposals : questioning a legal status / edited by Anita Bernstein.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bernstein, Anita.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Marriage law--United States--Philosophy.

Marriage law.

Marriage law--Philosophy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (255 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The essays in Marriage Proposals envision a variety of scenarios in which adults would continue to join themselves together seeking permanent companionship and sustenance, linking sexual intimacy to a long commitment, usually caring for each other, and building new families. What would disappear are the legal consequences associated with marriage. No joint income tax return; no immigration privileges like the “fiancée visa” or the right to bring in a husband or wife; no special statuses for prison visits or hospital decisions; no prerogative to remain silent in court by claiming “confidential marital communications”; no pension entitlements; no marital benefits and detriments regarding criminal or civil liability.The anthology makes a unique contribution amid the two marriage furors of the day: same-sex marriage and the Bush Administration's “marriage movement” (that marrying is good and more marriages would be better for society). Abolishing the legal category of marriage is the only policy suggestion in current American discourse that speaks to both causes. Activists on both sides of the same-sex marriage fight, along with marriage movement partisans, all seek improvement through law reform. Marriage Proposals gives them a viable reform—abolition of marriage as a legal status—for fighting battles in the courtroom and the streets.Contributors include Anita Bernstein, Peggy Cooper Davis, Martha Albertson Fineman, Linda C. McClain, Marshall Miller, Lawrence Rosen, Mary Lyndon Shanley, and Dorian Solot.

Contents:

The meaning of marriage / Martha Albertson Fineman

Taking government out of the marriage business : families would benefit / Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller

What place for marriage (e)quality in marriage promotion? / Linda C. McClain

Anthropological perspectives on the abolition of marriage / Lawrence Rosen

Marriage as a 'badge and incident' of democratic freedom / Peggy Cooper Davis

The state of marriage and the state in marriage : what must be done / Mary Lyndon Shanley.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-8147-8647-2

1-4294-1508-8

OCLC:

319491929