I came across this news item from Utah on divorce waiting periods.
House endorses divorce ‘cooling off’ period
The comment section is pretty unproductive, it seemed apparent that those discussing it had no understanding that many states (even liberal ones, like mine in Massachusetts) had some form of waiting period before a divorce could be finalized.
If you ask for marriage as a right/benefit from the state, then why can't the state have an interest in why one's marriage is about to dissolve?
In Massachusetts, parenting classes are mandated for couples with minor children.
More and more, I'm thinking there should be at least a two-tiered system in state law.
ReplyDeleteI believe in the freedom of association and our culture has changed much in terms of same-sex couples, roommate situations, etc. Gone are the days when most family stayed in the same town, perhaps on the same farm, for generations, with no unmarried cohabitation. (Women would stay with their family until they married.) Now, women and men both are on their own for longer, might have roommates, shack up, live longer as widows and widowers, and their own children may have moved away. We also have more state, federal, and private programs for beneficiaries. Having reciprocal beneficiaries and/or domestic partnerships could address these cultural shifts.
Perhaps marriage should reacquire some of he legal attachments, as well as some new ones. For example, requiring certified pre-marital counseling that covers at least a bare minimum of specific topics and results in written agreement between the potential spouses on those topics; requiring a vow of monogamy and backing it up with adultery, alienation of affection, and rejection/nonconsumation laws, and requiring a waiting period, counseling, and assigning fault in divorce (unless they agreed pre-marriage to have no-fault in the event of divorce).
The waiting period could be waved with evidence of domestic violence, etc., and perhaps someone guilty of a certain number of adultery, domestic violence incidents, or who has been the initiator of the divorce without cause, could be denied from getting a new marriage license.
RBs/DPs would be available to all who didn't want to deal with all of that.
As for federal law, it could recognize the RBs or DPs for beneficiary purposes.
My caution:
I would want these to help children and societal stability, not undermine marriage, including not being used as Trojan Horses for the courts.
While I don't think pre-counseling is a good idea, I think disclosure of state laws on divorce at the time of marriage may actually be an idea to discuss. No one thinks about divorce when planning a wedding, but not until the other party is hit with divorce paper, they find out how easy it is and with no tools or protection in no-fault to deal with the issues of the break down of the marriage.
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