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Regardless how you interpret the statistics, the divorce rate in the United States is staggering. But, what if thegovernmentcould change this? Would families be better off if new public policies made it more difficult for couples to separate? This book explores a movement that emerged over the past fifteen years, which aims to do just that. Guided by certain politicians and religious leaders who herald marriage as a solution to a range of longstanding social problems, a handful of state governments enacted \"covenant marriage\" laws, which require couples to choose between a conventional and a covenant marriage. While the familiar type of union requires little effort to enter and can be terminated by either party unilaterally, covenant marriage requires premarital counseling, an agreement bound by fault-based rules or lengthy waiting periods to exit, and a legal stipulation that divorce can be granted only after the couple has received counseling. Drawing on interviews with over 700 couples-half of whom have chosen covenant unions-this book not only evaluates the viability of public policy in the intimate affairs of marriage, it also explores how growing public discourse is causing men and women to rethink the meaning of marriage.

This study examines attitudes toward gay marriage within the context of concern over the weakening of heterosexual marriage. We use data from a three-state survey conducted in 1998 - 2000 and designed to explore attitudes toward marriage and divorce reform (N = 976). We find that women, Whites, and younger persons are more approving of gay marriage than men, Blacks, and older persons. Nonparents with cohabitation experience are most approving, whereas parents with no cohabitation experience are most opposed. Heterosexual marriage preservation attitudes are key predictors, net of religiosity and political conservativism. We interpret these findings with theories about vested interest in upholding marriage as an institution and ambivalence resulting from conflicting core values of the sanctity of marriage versus the valorization of individualism.

Marriage is at the center of one of today's fiercest political debates. Activists argue about how to define it, judges and legislators decide who should benefit from it, and scholars consider how the state should protect those who are denied it. Few, however, ask whether the state should have anything to do with marriage in the first place. In Untying the Knot, Tamara Metz addresses this crucial question, making a powerful argument that marriage, like religion, should be separated from the state. Rather than defining or conferring marriage, or relying on it to achieve legitimate public welfare goals, the state should create a narrow legal status that supports all intimate caregiving unions. Marriage itself should be bestowed by those best suited to give it the necessary ethical authority--religious groups and other kinds of communities. Divorcing the state from marriage is dictated by nothing less than basic commitments to freedom and equality.

This study investigated differences in the trajectory of marital satisfaction in the first 7 years between couples in covenant versus standard marriages. The authors analyzed data on 707 Louisiana marriages from the Marriage Matters Panel Survey of Newlywed Couples, 1998-2004, using multivariate longitudinal growth modeling. When the sample was restricted to couples who remained married over the duration of the study, a marginal benefit of covenant status was found for husbands. This effect was largely accounted for by covenant husbands ' more extensive exposure to premarital counseling. The linear decline in marital satisfaction over time that obtained for both husbands and wives was not, however, any different for covenant marriages versus standard marriages. Couples characterized by more traditional attitudes toward gender roles were significantly less satisfied than others. High premarital risk factors, initial uncertainty about marrying the spouse, and the presence of preschool-age children in the household were all corrosive of marital satisfaction at any given time.

To combat growing divorce rates, some states have begun to offer covenant marriage contracts, which are more costly to enter and exit than traditional marriages. This paper explores how having this option changes couples’ relationship decisions. It utilizes marriage and divorce rate data from Arkansas, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas between 1990 and 2013 to understand how covenants change the relationship decisions made by individuals. It provide the first documentation of the potential and observed effects of this new relationship status and evidence about whether or not this option is effective in its goal of creating stronger, happier unions.

Garrett compares the civil covenant option with the Catholic vision of marriage. He offers an overview of covenant marriage legislation in general and highlights some differences between the three versions of the law currently in effect. He opens with a brief discussion of the church's understanding of marriage and continues by examining areas of convergence and tension between the civil covenant laws and the relevant canonical legislation found in the church's Code of Canon Law. He also proposes that church officials should promote civil covenant marriage in those jurisdictions where it is available and encourage the adoption of the legislation elsewhere. Finally, he suggests that support for the legislation is consistent with goals outlined by Leo XIII in Arcanum and more recently by both John Paul II and the American bishops.

In 2010, the Knesset passed the Spousal Covenant Act, which enables Israelis 'lacking religious affiliation' to marry and divorce in Israel. Using the 'twin tolerations' theory, I present the process and the actors involved in the legislation, pointing out that in Israel the twin tolerations are reflected in the so-called status quo. On the basis of that analysis, I argue that the spousal covenant, initially aimed at solving the problem of all individuals forbidden to marry in Israel, but especially 'non-Halakhic' Jews from the FSU, ended up as a marginalizing law, excluding those non-Halakhic Jews from the Jewish-Israeli collective. I further argue that non-Halakhic Jews from the FSU no longer contest the Israeli religious regime of inclusion and instead use the 'established bypasses'—cohabitation and civil marriage abroad—both to get married and to be part of the national collective.

Governmental efforts to strengthen marriage through a variety of approaches have become increasingly common in the last decade. Societal trends related to family formation, marriage, and divorce have shaped interest in marriage and its stability as a social institution. The public sector has targeted efforts at key stages in the life history of the family system, including preparation for marriage, formation of marriage, rights and responsibilities within marriage, and dissolution of marriage. Particular governmental approaches to preserving and promoting marriage in these contexts are reviewed and discussed, and implications for practitioners and policymakers are outlined.

At several points in her characteristically acute discussion of the debate swirling around same-sex marriage, Professor Nussbaum suggests that perhaps the best solution to the current controversy is for the state to abandon the business of conferring marital status: \"Might a good solution,\" she asks, \"be for the state to back out of the expressive domain altogether, offering civil unions for both same-sex and opposite-sex couples?\" The author has some skepticism that, as a practical matter, a state can actually avoid the expressive domain. To be sure, official adoption of terms like civil union or domestic partnership might contribute to the emergence of familial arrangements that depart in material ways from one or more aspects of traditional marriage. In this article, the author focuses on the more doctrinal question whether the Constitution permits a state to abolish the institution of civil marriage.

Americans have interesting and somewhat puzzling attitudes about the state's role in defining and enforcing family obligations. Yet any legal initiative designed to reinforce the commitment of marriage generates controversy and is viewed with suspicion in many quarters. The law tends to reflect - and perhaps contributes to - this wariness about legal commitment in marriage. Marriage has become a battleground in the culture wars, pitting cultural and religious conservatives against political liberals and feminists. This essay presents an account of the relationship between family law and the social norms surrounding marriage.