Marriage as a Legal term? (1 Viewer)

[Nero]

This may be a bit out of the blue, but the whole gay marriage controversy started my thinking, what’s the point of marriage under the jurisdiction?

I mean, for one it oversteps the bounds of the separation between religion and state. Take for example the Mormons and polygamy. At the end of the day the United States (and the other western countries) gives monetary (through tax benefits and such) incentive to people who follow the Christian definition of marriage.

On top of that the fact that marriage is defined legally gives the country a loophole to intervene into peoples personal affairs. If there was no legal "value" to marriage the country would have no way to keep homosexuals from having any sort of union they please. It would have no way to limit polygamy or any other sort of arrangement between 2 (or any number) of people that love each other? I mean, who made it the business of the country to decide that kind of thing.

The idea would be that marriage’s legal standing would disappear and be replaced by normal contracts (sort of like pre-nups) between the people getting "married". What could possibly be lost by this system except the countries ability to stick its nose into the bedroom?

 

[Real Korimyr #9]

The idea would be that marriage’s legal standing would disappear and be replaced by normal contracts (sort of like pre-nups) between the people getting "married". What could possibly be lost by this system except the countries ability to stick its nose into the bedroom?

It would work, but the State losing its ability to dictate terms is a problem. Contracts could be written which would absolve people of their responsibilities to their children should the marriage contract be dissolved, and a marriage contract might omit a number of essential clauses that legally-defined marriage includes, simply because they didn't think about them.

Not to mention, of course, that people could enter into marriage contracts even less binding than our official ones-- and there would be the issue that without established and standardized family law, contracts would be more subject to imbalances of financial and legal power between spouses.

Personally, I think family law is one of the most important aspects of law; we should not be so quick to abandon it or turn it into an extension of contract law, even in pursuit of admirable goals.