Elizabeth Brake
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199774142
- eISBN:
- 9780199933228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199774142.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
Chapter 8 takes up the problem of implementing the marriage law of ideal theory in a non-ideal world. It addresses concerns that minimal marriage would worsen the lot of the vulnerable, especially ...
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Chapter 8 takes up the problem of implementing the marriage law of ideal theory in a non-ideal world. It addresses concerns that minimal marriage would worsen the lot of the vulnerable, especially women, by eliminating anti-poverty marriage promotion, mandatory alimony and property division protecting the economically dependent, and permitting gender-structured polygyny. Liberals could consistently support transitional provisions for benefits and property division, but liberalism can, and should, also address such problems through legal vehicles other than marriage, especially through education and default rules of financial fairness. Political liberalism holds a number of insufficiently recognized tools for feminists, including rectification, neutrality, and the status it assigns to goods of care and self-respect.Less
Chapter 8 takes up the problem of implementing the marriage law of ideal theory in a non-ideal world. It addresses concerns that minimal marriage would worsen the lot of the vulnerable, especially women, by eliminating anti-poverty marriage promotion, mandatory alimony and property division protecting the economically dependent, and permitting gender-structured polygyny. Liberals could consistently support transitional provisions for benefits and property division, but liberalism can, and should, also address such problems through legal vehicles other than marriage, especially through education and default rules of financial fairness. Political liberalism holds a number of insufficiently recognized tools for feminists, including rectification, neutrality, and the status it assigns to goods of care and self-respect.
Lawrence Stone
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198226512
- eISBN:
- 9780191678646
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198226512.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Social History
This chapter discusses judicial separation. Suits for judicial separation in the ecclesiastical courts had three purposes. Most suits launched by a wife were blackmail devices in order to improve the ...
More
This chapter discusses judicial separation. Suits for judicial separation in the ecclesiastical courts had three purposes. Most suits launched by a wife were blackmail devices in order to improve the financial terms of a separation, where the main issue was the alimony to be paid by the husband. Most suits brought by the husband were in order to obtain a separation from an adulterous wife without having to pay her alimony. Uncontested suits brought by a husband were usually part of a collusive arrangement by which both parties conspire together to prepare for parliamentary divorce. The second section examines the different types of suits such as nullity, jactication, separation form bed and board, and restitution of conjugal rights. The third section considers the procedure for launching a suit. The last two sections explore the relationship between servants and masters, and servants in court.Less
This chapter discusses judicial separation. Suits for judicial separation in the ecclesiastical courts had three purposes. Most suits launched by a wife were blackmail devices in order to improve the financial terms of a separation, where the main issue was the alimony to be paid by the husband. Most suits brought by the husband were in order to obtain a separation from an adulterous wife without having to pay her alimony. Uncontested suits brought by a husband were usually part of a collusive arrangement by which both parties conspire together to prepare for parliamentary divorce. The second section examines the different types of suits such as nullity, jactication, separation form bed and board, and restitution of conjugal rights. The third section considers the procedure for launching a suit. The last two sections explore the relationship between servants and masters, and servants in court.
Loren Schweninger
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807835692
- eISBN:
- 9781469601625
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807837504_schweninger.10
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This book presents stories of antebellum families in crisis, showing the pervasive nature of domestic violence, white women leaving their abusive husbands and filing for divorce or separation, and ...
More
This book presents stories of antebellum families in crisis, showing the pervasive nature of domestic violence, white women leaving their abusive husbands and filing for divorce or separation, and slaves caught in between marital clashes. It also examines the processes of revising divorce and alimony statutes, and the enactment of laws to protect married women's property before the Civil War. As time passed, lawyers and judges evolved, including state laws with regard to divorce, separation, and alimony suits. White women fared better than white men in their pleas for divorce and separation, and were likely to receive favorable results. After the Civil War, most of the suits were filed by men; slavery never again entered the equation, and women did not have to fight to retain control of their slave property.Less
This book presents stories of antebellum families in crisis, showing the pervasive nature of domestic violence, white women leaving their abusive husbands and filing for divorce or separation, and slaves caught in between marital clashes. It also examines the processes of revising divorce and alimony statutes, and the enactment of laws to protect married women's property before the Civil War. As time passed, lawyers and judges evolved, including state laws with regard to divorce, separation, and alimony suits. White women fared better than white men in their pleas for divorce and separation, and were likely to receive favorable results. After the Civil War, most of the suits were filed by men; slavery never again entered the equation, and women did not have to fight to retain control of their slave property.
Cynthia Lee Starnes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814708248
- eISBN:
- 9780814708477
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814708248.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
From divorce court to popular culture, alimony is a dirty word. Unpopular and rarely ordered, the awards are frequently inconsistent and unpredictable. The institution itself is often viewed as an ...
More
From divorce court to popular culture, alimony is a dirty word. Unpopular and rarely ordered, the awards are frequently inconsistent and unpredictable. The institution itself is often viewed as an historical relic that harkens back to a gendered past in which women lacked the economic independence to free themselves from economic support by their spouses. In short, critics of alimony claim it has no place in contemporary visions of marriage as a partnership of equals. But this book argues that alimony is often the only practical tool for ensuring that divorce does not treat today's primary caregivers as if they were suckers. The suggested solution is to radically reconceptualize alimony as a marriage buyout. The buyouts draw on a partnership model of marriage that reinforces communal norms of marriage, providing a gender-neutral alternative to alimony that assumes equality in spousal contribution, responsibility, and right. The quantification formulae support new default rules that make buyouts more certain and predictable than their current alimony counterparts. Looking beyond alimony, the book outlines a new vision of marriages with children, describing a co-parenting partnership between committed couples, and the conceptual basis for income sharing between divorced parents of minor children. Ultimately, under a partnership model, the focus of alimony is on gain rather than loss and equality rather than power: a spouse with disparately low earnings isn't a sucker or a victim dependent on a fixed alimony payment, but rather an equal stakeholder in marriage who is entitled at divorce to share any gains the marriage produced.Less
From divorce court to popular culture, alimony is a dirty word. Unpopular and rarely ordered, the awards are frequently inconsistent and unpredictable. The institution itself is often viewed as an historical relic that harkens back to a gendered past in which women lacked the economic independence to free themselves from economic support by their spouses. In short, critics of alimony claim it has no place in contemporary visions of marriage as a partnership of equals. But this book argues that alimony is often the only practical tool for ensuring that divorce does not treat today's primary caregivers as if they were suckers. The suggested solution is to radically reconceptualize alimony as a marriage buyout. The buyouts draw on a partnership model of marriage that reinforces communal norms of marriage, providing a gender-neutral alternative to alimony that assumes equality in spousal contribution, responsibility, and right. The quantification formulae support new default rules that make buyouts more certain and predictable than their current alimony counterparts. Looking beyond alimony, the book outlines a new vision of marriages with children, describing a co-parenting partnership between committed couples, and the conceptual basis for income sharing between divorced parents of minor children. Ultimately, under a partnership model, the focus of alimony is on gain rather than loss and equality rather than power: a spouse with disparately low earnings isn't a sucker or a victim dependent on a fixed alimony payment, but rather an equal stakeholder in marriage who is entitled at divorce to share any gains the marriage produced.
Cynthia Lee Starnes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814708248
- eISBN:
- 9780814708477
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814708248.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
This chapter examines the current state of alimony law. It argues that alimony guidelines have morphed in two significant ways. First, guidelines are taking on more importance, shifting from local ...
More
This chapter examines the current state of alimony law. It argues that alimony guidelines have morphed in two significant ways. First, guidelines are taking on more importance, shifting from local to state-wide application, and from optional guidance to statutory presumptions. Second, guidelines have assumed a new goal: in addition to increasing the certainty and predictability of alimony awards, guidelines are increasingly advanced as a means to limit alimony eligibility, duration, and value. Much of the energy of the contemporary guideline movement comes from grassroots alimony reform groups, state-by-state organizations composed largely of alimony payors (and sometimes their new spouses) who aim to end “alimony abuse.” These reformers are inspiring a new wave of disdain for alimony and new statutory restrictions on its availability.
Less
This chapter examines the current state of alimony law. It argues that alimony guidelines have morphed in two significant ways. First, guidelines are taking on more importance, shifting from local to state-wide application, and from optional guidance to statutory presumptions. Second, guidelines have assumed a new goal: in addition to increasing the certainty and predictability of alimony awards, guidelines are increasingly advanced as a means to limit alimony eligibility, duration, and value. Much of the energy of the contemporary guideline movement comes from grassroots alimony reform groups, state-by-state organizations composed largely of alimony payors (and sometimes their new spouses) who aim to end “alimony abuse.” These reformers are inspiring a new wave of disdain for alimony and new statutory restrictions on its availability.
Cynthia Lee Starnes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814708248
- eISBN:
- 9780814708477
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814708248.003.0011
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
This concluding chapter argues that alimony is often the only available tool for ensuring that divorce does not impose all the long-term costs of marital roles on caregivers while freeing the other ...
More
This concluding chapter argues that alimony is often the only available tool for ensuring that divorce does not impose all the long-term costs of marital roles on caregivers while freeing the other spouse to enjoy all the long-term benefits. Yet in its current incarnation, alimony is not up to the task before it. The law of alimony inspires orders that are unpredictable, inconsistent, short-lived, and uncommon. Alimony's problems are exacerbated by the absence of any contemporary rationale to justify its existence in an age of no-fault divorce and supposed gender equality. Drawing on a loose analogy to partnership, the book has proposed that alimony be reconceptualized as a marriage buyout. Buyouts support new default rules that reinforce egalitarian, gender-neutral, communal visions of marriage, encourage expectations consistent with that vision, and in all but very low-income cases, protect primary caregivers who rely on marriage promises.
Less
This concluding chapter argues that alimony is often the only available tool for ensuring that divorce does not impose all the long-term costs of marital roles on caregivers while freeing the other spouse to enjoy all the long-term benefits. Yet in its current incarnation, alimony is not up to the task before it. The law of alimony inspires orders that are unpredictable, inconsistent, short-lived, and uncommon. Alimony's problems are exacerbated by the absence of any contemporary rationale to justify its existence in an age of no-fault divorce and supposed gender equality. Drawing on a loose analogy to partnership, the book has proposed that alimony be reconceptualized as a marriage buyout. Buyouts support new default rules that reinforce egalitarian, gender-neutral, communal visions of marriage, encourage expectations consistent with that vision, and in all but very low-income cases, protect primary caregivers who rely on marriage promises.
Cynthia Lee Starnes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814708248
- eISBN:
- 9780814708477
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814708248.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
This chapter examines the current state of alimony law. It argues that alimony guidelines have morphed in two significant ways. First, guidelines are taking on more importance, shifting from local to ...
More
This chapter examines the current state of alimony law. It argues that alimony guidelines have morphed in two significant ways. First, guidelines are taking on more importance, shifting from local to state-wide application, and from optional guidance to statutory presumptions. Second, guidelines have assumed a new goal: in addition to increasing the certainty and predictability of alimony awards, guidelines are increasingly advanced as a means to limit alimony eligibility, duration, and value. Much of the energy of the contemporary guideline movement comes from grassroots alimony reform groups, state-by-state organizations composed largely of alimony payors (and sometimes their new spouses) who aim to end “alimony abuse.” These reformers are inspiring a new wave of disdain for alimony and new statutory restrictions on its availability.Less
This chapter examines the current state of alimony law. It argues that alimony guidelines have morphed in two significant ways. First, guidelines are taking on more importance, shifting from local to state-wide application, and from optional guidance to statutory presumptions. Second, guidelines have assumed a new goal: in addition to increasing the certainty and predictability of alimony awards, guidelines are increasingly advanced as a means to limit alimony eligibility, duration, and value. Much of the energy of the contemporary guideline movement comes from grassroots alimony reform groups, state-by-state organizations composed largely of alimony payors (and sometimes their new spouses) who aim to end “alimony abuse.” These reformers are inspiring a new wave of disdain for alimony and new statutory restrictions on its availability.
Cynthia Lee Starnes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814708248
- eISBN:
- 9780814708477
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814708248.003.0011
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
This concluding chapter argues that alimony is often the only available tool for ensuring that divorce does not impose all the long-term costs of marital roles on caregivers while freeing the other ...
More
This concluding chapter argues that alimony is often the only available tool for ensuring that divorce does not impose all the long-term costs of marital roles on caregivers while freeing the other spouse to enjoy all the long-term benefits. Yet in its current incarnation, alimony is not up to the task before it. The law of alimony inspires orders that are unpredictable, inconsistent, short-lived, and uncommon. Alimony's problems are exacerbated by the absence of any contemporary rationale to justify its existence in an age of no-fault divorce and supposed gender equality. Drawing on a loose analogy to partnership, the book has proposed that alimony be reconceptualized as a marriage buyout. Buyouts support new default rules that reinforce egalitarian, gender-neutral, communal visions of marriage, encourage expectations consistent with that vision, and in all but very low-income cases, protect primary caregivers who rely on marriage promises.Less
This concluding chapter argues that alimony is often the only available tool for ensuring that divorce does not impose all the long-term costs of marital roles on caregivers while freeing the other spouse to enjoy all the long-term benefits. Yet in its current incarnation, alimony is not up to the task before it. The law of alimony inspires orders that are unpredictable, inconsistent, short-lived, and uncommon. Alimony's problems are exacerbated by the absence of any contemporary rationale to justify its existence in an age of no-fault divorce and supposed gender equality. Drawing on a loose analogy to partnership, the book has proposed that alimony be reconceptualized as a marriage buyout. Buyouts support new default rules that reinforce egalitarian, gender-neutral, communal visions of marriage, encourage expectations consistent with that vision, and in all but very low-income cases, protect primary caregivers who rely on marriage promises.
Cynthia Lee Starnes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814708248
- eISBN:
- 9780814708477
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814708248.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
This chapter considers the near-universal rule that alimony terminates upon a recipient's remarriage. The vast majority of states, either through case or statutory law, provide that a recipient's ...
More
This chapter considers the near-universal rule that alimony terminates upon a recipient's remarriage. The vast majority of states, either through case or statutory law, provide that a recipient's remarriage automatically terminates alimony, or at least creates a prima facie case for termination. However, the rule has no conceptual basis in contemporary understandings of alimony. As the American Law Institute (ALI) acknowledges, the underlying rationale for the remarriage-termination rule is “remarkably unclear.” The chapter begins by discussing the remarriage-termination rule. It then identifies the purpose of alimony, an essential first step in assessing the legitimacy of the remarriage-termination rule. The final section considers judicial rationales for the remarriage-termination rule, which fall into three rough categories: (1) unseemliness, (2) election, and (3) untidiness.
Less
This chapter considers the near-universal rule that alimony terminates upon a recipient's remarriage. The vast majority of states, either through case or statutory law, provide that a recipient's remarriage automatically terminates alimony, or at least creates a prima facie case for termination. However, the rule has no conceptual basis in contemporary understandings of alimony. As the American Law Institute (ALI) acknowledges, the underlying rationale for the remarriage-termination rule is “remarkably unclear.” The chapter begins by discussing the remarriage-termination rule. It then identifies the purpose of alimony, an essential first step in assessing the legitimacy of the remarriage-termination rule. The final section considers judicial rationales for the remarriage-termination rule, which fall into three rough categories: (1) unseemliness, (2) election, and (3) untidiness.
Cynthia Lee Starnes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814708248
- eISBN:
- 9780814708477
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814708248.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
This chapter turns to theories of alimony offered by contemporary scholars in search of a rationale for the remarriage-termination rule. Contemporary scholars have long struggled to explain alimony ...
More
This chapter turns to theories of alimony offered by contemporary scholars in search of a rationale for the remarriage-termination rule. Contemporary scholars have long struggled to explain alimony in an age of easy divorce and equality rhetoric, but there is still no consensus on the answer to the questions: Why should anyone be forced to share income with a former spouse? If divorce severs the tie between spouses, if each spouse is entitled to a clean break and a fresh start as no-fault laws teach, what is the rationale for alimony? Most theories of alimony focus primarily on one of three interests: (1) a claimant's contributions to the other spouse (contribution theory); (2) a claimant's expected gain (gain theory); and (3) a claimant's loss (loss theory).
Less
This chapter turns to theories of alimony offered by contemporary scholars in search of a rationale for the remarriage-termination rule. Contemporary scholars have long struggled to explain alimony in an age of easy divorce and equality rhetoric, but there is still no consensus on the answer to the questions: Why should anyone be forced to share income with a former spouse? If divorce severs the tie between spouses, if each spouse is entitled to a clean break and a fresh start as no-fault laws teach, what is the rationale for alimony? Most theories of alimony focus primarily on one of three interests: (1) a claimant's contributions to the other spouse (contribution theory); (2) a claimant's expected gain (gain theory); and (3) a claimant's loss (loss theory).
Hanoch Dagan and Carolyn J. Frantz
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199737864
- eISBN:
- 9780199894994
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199737864.003.0022
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
This chapter delves into a specific and particularly important species of a liberal commons: marital property. It endorses a vision of marriage as an egalitarian liberal community, and takes this as ...
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This chapter delves into a specific and particularly important species of a liberal commons: marital property. It endorses a vision of marriage as an egalitarian liberal community, and takes this as the regulative principle of marital property law. This vision endorses commitment to a marital community where spouses share without reference to individual desert, together with a concern for nonsubordination and for the protection of individual autonomy, primarily through free exit. It argues that, contrary to the common assumption, not only are these goals not incompatible but they can also be accommodated to a remarkable degree. It then traces the implications of this vision of marriage for marital property law, relying on it to defend the equal division rule for existing marital property, which is broadly defined to include increases and decreases in the spouses' earning capacity during the pendency of their marriage. The chapter also discusses alimony, generally endorsing the practice of rehabilitative alimony and property governance during marriage, arguing in favor of management rules currently applied in many community property states.Less
This chapter delves into a specific and particularly important species of a liberal commons: marital property. It endorses a vision of marriage as an egalitarian liberal community, and takes this as the regulative principle of marital property law. This vision endorses commitment to a marital community where spouses share without reference to individual desert, together with a concern for nonsubordination and for the protection of individual autonomy, primarily through free exit. It argues that, contrary to the common assumption, not only are these goals not incompatible but they can also be accommodated to a remarkable degree. It then traces the implications of this vision of marriage for marital property law, relying on it to defend the equal division rule for existing marital property, which is broadly defined to include increases and decreases in the spouses' earning capacity during the pendency of their marriage. The chapter also discusses alimony, generally endorsing the practice of rehabilitative alimony and property governance during marriage, arguing in favor of management rules currently applied in many community property states.
K. J. Kesselring and Tim Stretton
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- February 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780192849953
- eISBN:
- 9780191945083
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780192849953.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Social History
England is well known as the only Protestant state not to introduce divorce in the sixteenth-century Reformation. Only at the end of the seventeenth century did divorce by private act of parliament ...
More
England is well known as the only Protestant state not to introduce divorce in the sixteenth-century Reformation. Only at the end of the seventeenth century did divorce by private act of parliament become available for a select few men, and only in 1857 did the Divorce Act and its creation of judicial divorces extend the possibility more broadly. Aspects of the history of divorce are well known from studies which typically privilege the records of the church courts that claimed a monopoly on marriage. But why did England alone of all Protestant jurisdictions not allow divorce with remarriage in the era of the Reformation, and how did people in failed marriages cope with this absence? One part of the answer to the first question, this book argues, and a factor that shaped people’s responses to the second, lay in another distinctive aspect of English law: its common-law formulation of coverture, the umbrella term for married women’s legal status and property rights. The bonds of marriage stayed tightly tied in post-Reformation England in part because marriage was as much about wealth as it was about salvation or sexuality, and English society had deeply invested in a system that subordinated a wife’s identity and property to those of the man she married. To understand this dimension of divorce’s history, this study looks beyond the church courts to the records of other judicial bodies, the secular courts of common law and equity, to bring fresh perspective to a history that remains relevant today.Less
England is well known as the only Protestant state not to introduce divorce in the sixteenth-century Reformation. Only at the end of the seventeenth century did divorce by private act of parliament become available for a select few men, and only in 1857 did the Divorce Act and its creation of judicial divorces extend the possibility more broadly. Aspects of the history of divorce are well known from studies which typically privilege the records of the church courts that claimed a monopoly on marriage. But why did England alone of all Protestant jurisdictions not allow divorce with remarriage in the era of the Reformation, and how did people in failed marriages cope with this absence? One part of the answer to the first question, this book argues, and a factor that shaped people’s responses to the second, lay in another distinctive aspect of English law: its common-law formulation of coverture, the umbrella term for married women’s legal status and property rights. The bonds of marriage stayed tightly tied in post-Reformation England in part because marriage was as much about wealth as it was about salvation or sexuality, and English society had deeply invested in a system that subordinated a wife’s identity and property to those of the man she married. To understand this dimension of divorce’s history, this study looks beyond the church courts to the records of other judicial bodies, the secular courts of common law and equity, to bring fresh perspective to a history that remains relevant today.
Brian Donovan
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781469660288
- eISBN:
- 9781469660301
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469660288.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
Chapter One examines concerns about alimony in the late 1920s, a moral panic at which gold diggers took center stage. Historians have described the first two decades of the twentieth century as the ...
More
Chapter One examines concerns about alimony in the late 1920s, a moral panic at which gold diggers took center stage. Historians have described the first two decades of the twentieth century as the “first sexual revolution,” a time period which drastically altered attitudes about love, marriage, and divorce. The acceleration of romantic love as the primary justification for marriage coupled with new social and economic roles for women, prompted a rise in the divorce rate. As the divorce rate increased, and as the economic basis for family life changed, many Americans expressed widespread concern about men falling victim to alimony-seeking gold diggers. Coinciding with these changes, the parameters of who was considered “white” were in flux, and cultural negotiations of whiteness occurred in gendered and sexualized spaces, like advertising and popular entertainment. Specific white women, like former Ziegfeld star Peggy Hopkins Joyce, came to embody the gold digger and the problem of extravagant alimony awards. Well-publicized stories of greedy gold diggers focused on the high alimony awards sought by Joyce and others but, in reality, alimony payments had not substantially increased. Rather, the social panic about alimony reflected Progressive-Era angst about gender, class, and race.Less
Chapter One examines concerns about alimony in the late 1920s, a moral panic at which gold diggers took center stage. Historians have described the first two decades of the twentieth century as the “first sexual revolution,” a time period which drastically altered attitudes about love, marriage, and divorce. The acceleration of romantic love as the primary justification for marriage coupled with new social and economic roles for women, prompted a rise in the divorce rate. As the divorce rate increased, and as the economic basis for family life changed, many Americans expressed widespread concern about men falling victim to alimony-seeking gold diggers. Coinciding with these changes, the parameters of who was considered “white” were in flux, and cultural negotiations of whiteness occurred in gendered and sexualized spaces, like advertising and popular entertainment. Specific white women, like former Ziegfeld star Peggy Hopkins Joyce, came to embody the gold digger and the problem of extravagant alimony awards. Well-publicized stories of greedy gold diggers focused on the high alimony awards sought by Joyce and others but, in reality, alimony payments had not substantially increased. Rather, the social panic about alimony reflected Progressive-Era angst about gender, class, and race.
Cynthia Grant Bowman
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781479891047
- eISBN:
- 9781479874248
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479891047.003.0009
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
Courts have in fact encountered cases involving LATs, primarily in the context of contests about whether alimony to a previous spouse should be terminated based on cohabitation. In these cases, ...
More
Courts have in fact encountered cases involving LATs, primarily in the context of contests about whether alimony to a previous spouse should be terminated based on cohabitation. In these cases, judges have been devising a series of tests for determining whether a couple is in fact cohabiting or living apart together. This chapter will describe those cases, in the course of which the lives of LAT couples are revealed in more detail. In the absence of any consistent legal treatment, obvious injustices result, such as the denial of palimony suits and terminating alimony set after a long marriage based on a woman’s subsequent LAT relationship, although it involves no financial interdependence at all.Less
Courts have in fact encountered cases involving LATs, primarily in the context of contests about whether alimony to a previous spouse should be terminated based on cohabitation. In these cases, judges have been devising a series of tests for determining whether a couple is in fact cohabiting or living apart together. This chapter will describe those cases, in the course of which the lives of LAT couples are revealed in more detail. In the absence of any consistent legal treatment, obvious injustices result, such as the denial of palimony suits and terminating alimony set after a long marriage based on a woman’s subsequent LAT relationship, although it involves no financial interdependence at all.
Nick Dawson
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125381
- eISBN:
- 9780813135267
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125381.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter examines the developments in Hal Ashby's career and personal life during the year 1968. Ashby filed for divorce and give Shirley Citron $100 alimony per week. His collaboration with ...
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This chapter examines the developments in Hal Ashby's career and personal life during the year 1968. Ashby filed for divorce and give Shirley Citron $100 alimony per week. His collaboration with Norman Jewison, In the Heat of the Night was nominated for several Academy Awards. The film won several major awards including Best Picture, Best Actor, and the Best Film Editing for Ashby.Less
This chapter examines the developments in Hal Ashby's career and personal life during the year 1968. Ashby filed for divorce and give Shirley Citron $100 alimony per week. His collaboration with Norman Jewison, In the Heat of the Night was nominated for several Academy Awards. The film won several major awards including Best Picture, Best Actor, and the Best Film Editing for Ashby.
Cynthia Lee Starnes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814708248
- eISBN:
- 9780814708477
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814708248.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
This chapter considers the near-universal rule that alimony terminates upon a recipient's remarriage. The vast majority of states, either through case or statutory law, provide that a recipient's ...
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This chapter considers the near-universal rule that alimony terminates upon a recipient's remarriage. The vast majority of states, either through case or statutory law, provide that a recipient's remarriage automatically terminates alimony, or at least creates a prima facie case for termination. However, the rule has no conceptual basis in contemporary understandings of alimony. As the American Law Institute (ALI) acknowledges, the underlying rationale for the remarriage-termination rule is “remarkably unclear.” The chapter begins by discussing the remarriage-termination rule. It then identifies the purpose of alimony, an essential first step in assessing the legitimacy of the remarriage-termination rule. The final section considers judicial rationales for the remarriage-termination rule, which fall into three rough categories: (1) unseemliness, (2) election, and (3) untidiness.Less
This chapter considers the near-universal rule that alimony terminates upon a recipient's remarriage. The vast majority of states, either through case or statutory law, provide that a recipient's remarriage automatically terminates alimony, or at least creates a prima facie case for termination. However, the rule has no conceptual basis in contemporary understandings of alimony. As the American Law Institute (ALI) acknowledges, the underlying rationale for the remarriage-termination rule is “remarkably unclear.” The chapter begins by discussing the remarriage-termination rule. It then identifies the purpose of alimony, an essential first step in assessing the legitimacy of the remarriage-termination rule. The final section considers judicial rationales for the remarriage-termination rule, which fall into three rough categories: (1) unseemliness, (2) election, and (3) untidiness.
Cynthia Lee Starnes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814708248
- eISBN:
- 9780814708477
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814708248.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
This chapter turns to theories of alimony offered by contemporary scholars in search of a rationale for the remarriage-termination rule. Contemporary scholars have long struggled to explain alimony ...
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This chapter turns to theories of alimony offered by contemporary scholars in search of a rationale for the remarriage-termination rule. Contemporary scholars have long struggled to explain alimony in an age of easy divorce and equality rhetoric, but there is still no consensus on the answer to the questions: Why should anyone be forced to share income with a former spouse? If divorce severs the tie between spouses, if each spouse is entitled to a clean break and a fresh start as no-fault laws teach, what is the rationale for alimony? Most theories of alimony focus primarily on one of three interests: (1) a claimant's contributions to the other spouse (contribution theory); (2) a claimant's expected gain (gain theory); and (3) a claimant's loss (loss theory).Less
This chapter turns to theories of alimony offered by contemporary scholars in search of a rationale for the remarriage-termination rule. Contemporary scholars have long struggled to explain alimony in an age of easy divorce and equality rhetoric, but there is still no consensus on the answer to the questions: Why should anyone be forced to share income with a former spouse? If divorce severs the tie between spouses, if each spouse is entitled to a clean break and a fresh start as no-fault laws teach, what is the rationale for alimony? Most theories of alimony focus primarily on one of three interests: (1) a claimant's contributions to the other spouse (contribution theory); (2) a claimant's expected gain (gain theory); and (3) a claimant's loss (loss theory).
Narendra Subramanian
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804788786
- eISBN:
- 9780804790901
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804788786.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
This chapter discusses the laws governing India's two largest religious minorities, Muslims and Christians. Policy makers retained distinct minority laws to accommodate minorities, but their limited ...
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This chapter discusses the laws governing India's two largest religious minorities, Muslims and Christians. Policy makers retained distinct minority laws to accommodate minorities, but their limited engagement with minority initiatives and traditions and their stereotypes about Muslims being backward led them not to change minority laws after independence, even though support for personal-law reform was comparable among Muslims and Hindus. The growth of minority reformist mobilization and the engagement of more Hindu activists and policymakers with such initiatives enabled changes in minority law starting in the 1970s. Notably, alimony was required and unilateral male repudiation restricted among Muslims, and divorce rights increased for Christians and Parsis. Hindu-centered policy visions still limited the accommodation of demands to reform minority law (such as granting adoption rights to Christians), dissuaded legislation to increase Muslim women's rights (for example, to agricultural land), and kept Muslim law most distinctive.Less
This chapter discusses the laws governing India's two largest religious minorities, Muslims and Christians. Policy makers retained distinct minority laws to accommodate minorities, but their limited engagement with minority initiatives and traditions and their stereotypes about Muslims being backward led them not to change minority laws after independence, even though support for personal-law reform was comparable among Muslims and Hindus. The growth of minority reformist mobilization and the engagement of more Hindu activists and policymakers with such initiatives enabled changes in minority law starting in the 1970s. Notably, alimony was required and unilateral male repudiation restricted among Muslims, and divorce rights increased for Christians and Parsis. Hindu-centered policy visions still limited the accommodation of demands to reform minority law (such as granting adoption rights to Christians), dissuaded legislation to increase Muslim women's rights (for example, to agricultural land), and kept Muslim law most distinctive.
Eve M. Brank
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479865413
- eISBN:
- 9781479882601
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479865413.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
Not all marriages last and unlike other personal relationships, the dissolution of a marriage requires legal involvement to end the relationship. A divorce not only severs a marriage, but it also ...
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Not all marriages last and unlike other personal relationships, the dissolution of a marriage requires legal involvement to end the relationship. A divorce not only severs a marriage, but it also introduces legal involvement. That legal involvement is in the form of state laws that define how divorces are granted, whether the couple needs to have a formal separation before a divorce can be granted, how property should be divided upon dissolution, and whether formalized spousal financial support should commence. Although the law is involved in each of these issues, there are now more opportunities for the use of alternative dispute resolution options rather than traditional court settings that attempt to give more of the decision making back to the couple.Less
Not all marriages last and unlike other personal relationships, the dissolution of a marriage requires legal involvement to end the relationship. A divorce not only severs a marriage, but it also introduces legal involvement. That legal involvement is in the form of state laws that define how divorces are granted, whether the couple needs to have a formal separation before a divorce can be granted, how property should be divided upon dissolution, and whether formalized spousal financial support should commence. Although the law is involved in each of these issues, there are now more opportunities for the use of alternative dispute resolution options rather than traditional court settings that attempt to give more of the decision making back to the couple.
Brian H. Bix
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199989591
- eISBN:
- 9780190260200
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199989591.003.0017
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
This chapter examines the legal repercussions of domestic violence for family law. It first considers domestic violence as a ground for divorce and where fault is a factor that courts can take into ...
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This chapter examines the legal repercussions of domestic violence for family law. It first considers domestic violence as a ground for divorce and where fault is a factor that courts can take into account in determining the division of property or the setting of alimony. It then discusses the implications of domestic violence for child custody, premarital agreements, marital agreements, and separation agreements. It also takes note of the fact that many statutes and international law conventions create exceptions to the normal rules where domestic violence or child abuse is present.Less
This chapter examines the legal repercussions of domestic violence for family law. It first considers domestic violence as a ground for divorce and where fault is a factor that courts can take into account in determining the division of property or the setting of alimony. It then discusses the implications of domestic violence for child custody, premarital agreements, marital agreements, and separation agreements. It also takes note of the fact that many statutes and international law conventions create exceptions to the normal rules where domestic violence or child abuse is present.