Marriage Contracts

[Guest jamongo]

Quote From Cornell Law School

 

For entire writing, click link below:

 

http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Marriage

 

marriage: an overview

 

In the English common law tradition, from which our legal doctrines and concepts have developed, a marriage was a contract based upon a voluntary private agreement by a man and a woman to become husband and wife. Marriage was viewed as the basis of the family unit and vital to the preservation of morals and civilization. Traditionally, the husband had a duty to provide a safe house, pay for necessities such as food and clothing, and live in the house. The wife's obligations were maintaining a home, living in the home, having sexual relations with her husband, and rearing the couple's children. Today the underlying concept that marriage is a legal contract still remains but due to changes in society the legal obligations are not the same.

 

Is marriage as we know it today out-dated, because of these "changes in society? Should the marriage contract be changed? If so, in what way. Should it be a binding contract for a specified period of time, five years, ten years, etc.? We have today pre-nuptial agreements. Something unheard of not too many years ago.

 

And one other thought. Are men treated fairly with respect to marriages? This applies to the dating period, the marriage itself, and to the divorce if that unfortunate event occurs.

[Tormod]

Are you married yourself? Are women treated fairly with respect to marriages (since you ask about men only)?

 

I don't see the problem here. Divorce is so common today that a marriage that contracts won't help at all.

 

I am married but if I had a contract that said in ten years' time it's up, I'd feel as if I were living under a Damocles sword.

 

If anyone needs a contract for marriage, they are probably married for the wrong reasons.

[Mercedes Benzene]

If anyone needs a contract for marriage, they are probably married for the wrong reasons.

 

I agree entirely!

[Guest jamongo]

Are you married yourself?

 

What does my marital status have to do with this thread?

 

Are women treated fairly with respect to marriages (since you aks about men only)?

 

If anyone feels it necessary to add their comments on this subject, they are free to do so.

 

If anyone needs a contract for marriage, they are probably married for the wrong reasons.

 

Possibly. I couldn't say if that is true or not.

 

I was reading another post about RFIDs and started wondering what our human situation might be in the future. This started me thinking if when we mated with another, would we have RFIDs installed in our butts or something.

It is a curiosty about the future and what might develop. Humans, robots, cybernetics, perhaps a mixture of them all, what will happen to our emotions such as love, hate, anger, etc. Will marriage turn in to a type of business arrangement? That then prompted the thread.

[Tormod]

What does my marital status have to do with this thread?

 

It is a simple question. I suspect from your post that you are not married, and that you do not know what it means to be married.

 

Although many cultures have arranged marriages, where the partners are in a business agreement (more or less), most of the Western world has marriages based on (hopefully) the consent of the partners involved, not their parents.

[LJP07]

Ridicule. Having a contract for a marraige, sounds like an Insurance Policy to me, or a buying a product that you will enjoy, then probably get bored and terminate the contract.

 

What's the world coming too.

 

It's true to say that marraige is not the same as it was say in the last century with having a divorce is as common as bigamy.

[Freddy]

Prenuptuals are not used by the majority of married couples today. Here in the US 50% of all marriages end in divorce. Clearly, the "til death do us part" is not as widespead as it once was. Being married is a legal and socio/economic contract that the two parties agree to. When the parties no longer agree they separate and/or divorce. However, divorce does not end the economic agreement, especially when joint property and children are involved.

 

I am married and my wife of almost 10 years has recently put my name on the title of her condominium. However, if in the future we were to separate I will not try to claim half of the condo's value as she owned it long before we met. Hopefully, our marriage will last "til death do us part".

 

Since marriage has such a high failure rate I do think there should be a class for the prospective couples. It could be part of the marriage licensing process where you attend a class and are required to read a booklet on how to make a successful marriage and then pass an exam. Meeting with a marriage counselor to discuss what being married means to the couple could be helpful.

[Guest jamongo]

It is a simple question

But not relevant to the subject.

 

I suspect from your post that you are not married

Your suspicions are incorrect.

 

and that you do not know what it means to be married

Again you are incorrect.

 

I tried to carefully explain that I was curious as to the future and what changes people thought might take place.

 

You seem to be disturbed by this post, and you appear to be attacking me. If you don't like it, remove it.

[Rebiu]

Personally I find the idea of any authority sanctioning marriage ridiculous. I consider myself married though I have never sought recognition of that fact form any religious or governmental authority. There are some benefits to legal sanction of the relationship but I find that simple letting others assume and not clarifying is just as effective.

 

Many like to condescend to those of us in the real world about how you should not get married if this or you do not understand marriage if that. If we all waited until we were as perfect as they were many of use would die alone and childless.

 

I am 34 years old and have been with my wife for ten years. We have three children including her first born whom I am not the biological father of. She has had reoccurring problems with addiction, depression, anxiety, stress and her families intrusions. I am very satisfied with my life. I like my wife most of the time. I value my family most of all. I could pretend that I am in this flawless relationship where all problems can be talked out and a no one feels the need to threaten the relationship but it would be a lie. I doubt many relationships are composed of two people so mature, understanding and diplomatic.

[Tormod]

I tried to carefully explain that I was curious as to the future and what changes people thought might take place.

 

But you shrugged at my bouncing question about whether marriage was treating women badly. So I am confused by your stand on this issue. I don't understand your original post, and asked for clarification. Instead you jump on me and cry foul.

 

You seem to be disturbed by this post, and you appear to be attacking me. If you don't like it, remove it.

 

I am not disturbed by your post. I am more disturbed by your strange behaviour.

[GAHD]

In my observations of the canadian legal system in action, men are most definatly NOT treated fairly. While I'm not a lawyer I've seen quite a few cases.

 

The woman usually has to do very little to get majority or sole custody of children. Men will generally face several court dates before they have a chance at custody(she can make it HARD very easy).

 

While finantial assets are in general split 50-50, women are more likely to get that skewed their way over the years via alimony/maintenance(see:legal term of art) and/or child-support.

 

Regardless of "who" paid "how much" into a mortgage, legally you both split it. so unless payments work-out 50-50 that can be a bite. Same goes for cars & whatnot. Unless owned by a third party, of course.

 

Any north-american male should know that at a moments notice the police can drag you out of your home and force you to spend the night elsewhere if the woman makes one call. :) If it happens don't resist, ask about technicalities(like midnigt) and have a crash-$tash tucked-away in the yard or at a buddies.

 

Debts can become 50-50 too, so it can screw your credit rating

 

Having said the worst I know of, I hope none of it ever applies to you and that you and your familly live long and prosperous lives.

[CraigD]

I’m lead to suspect from the preceding posts in this thread that many of the posters misunderstand the legal meaning of the term “contract”. A contract is just an agreement between 2 or more parties to do or not do a specified thing in a specified period. Most contracts make reference to no law, and don’t require the attention of a court or any other branch of government. Though it’s usually wise to put important contracts in writing – it avoids misunderstanding and promotes satisfying completion of the contracts – practically any agreement between eligible parties (uncoerced adults) is a contract. Even a agreement that cannot be arbitrated in a court (eg: a contract for the exchange of illegal goods and services) is still a contract.

 

Only when one or more parties to a contract contend the contract has been broken (breeched) does a court and a legal code and tradition come into play.

 

Where marriage becomes more complicated that, say, a contract with your neighbor for you to mow his lawn in exchange for feeding your pets when you’re on vacation, is largely because marriage is widely recognized as a special relationship by insurance companies and regulators, and because it is special in how it obliges spouses to support their children.

 

With that in mind, and in light of numerous statistical and anecdotal data concerning the correlation between marriage and child development in US and similar societies, I believe there should be an increased effort to reduce the divorce rate among couples (both formally and common-law married) with pre-adult children). I believe the most effective way to do this is through counseling. Therefore, I believe that: 1) insurance regulators should require health insurance companies to (or, in countries with nationalized health care, should) provide counseling, and make efforts to assure that counselors are well qualified and as effective as possible; and 2) courts should encourage counseling during and after divorce.

[LJP07]

A contract is just an agreement between 2 or more parties to do or not do a specified thing in a specified period. Most contracts make reference to no law.

 

A Contract is actually:

 

1. An agreement enforced by the law.

So to say reference to no law doesn't make sense, since even verbal contracts are enforced by the law.

 

or in another sense:

 

2. Slang:An arrangement for a hired assasin to kill a specific person.

 

or

 

3. To draw together or into smaller compass eg Contract a Muscle.:confused:

 

But overall you were wrong to say wasn't in reference to no law.:D

[Freddy]

Personally I find the idea of any authority sanctioning marriage ridiculous. I consider myself married though I have never sought recognition of that fact form any religious or governmental authority. There are some benefits to legal sanction of the relationship but I find that simple letting others assume and not clarifying is just as effective.

 

Many like to condescend to those of us in the real world about how you should not get married if this or you do not understand marriage if that. If we all waited until we were as perfect as they were many of use would die alone and childless.

 

I am 34 years old and have been with my wife for ten years. We have three children including her first born whom I am not the biological father of. She has had reoccurring problems with addiction, depression, anxiety, stress and her families intrusions. I am very satisfied with my life. I like my wife most of the time. I value my family most of all. I could pretend that I am in this flawless relationship where all problems can be talked out and a no one feels the need to threaten the relationship but it would be a lie. I doubt many relationships are composed of two people so mature, understanding and diplomatic.

 

Sounds like you have a good relationship. If you lived in MA your relationship would not be considered a marriage here. If you came from another state that sanctions "common law" marriages MA would recognize it. Marriage is legally sanctioned and binding by the state. Dissolution of a marriage can only be done through legal means, separation and divorce. Under special circumstances the state can annul a marriage, meaning it never existed. I am glad that we all can have our own style of relationship recognized under the law.

[cwes99_03]

I think that the real debate is whether people should abide to the real marriage contract. That each partner treat each other with much and due respect. That a husband as head of household has certain obligations and that a wife has certain duties, but that it would be wrong for either to mistreat their mate or disregard their responsibilities.

If we were to keep it that way then I say stay. However, that is not what is necessarily practiced today and I think that that needs to change.

[HydrogenBond]

Marriage takes work to work. Men and women are two different animals that see the world differently and whose needs are different. Finding the proper bland takes time and efford. The ease of divorce has made people wimp out when the going gets tough.

 

If divorce was hard to come by legally and was still shunned socially, men opting for marriage would may try to chose partners who are helpmates rather than playmates. While women would choose partners who are helpmates instead of moneymates. Easy divorce has made marriage sort of contract prostitution. When infatuation ends and work begins it is time for a new contract.

[cwes99_03]

I agree with parts of that statement. I think divorce is one of the most perverse things in the world.