Closing the Gap between Family Life and Family Law in the United States Through Legal Recognition of Nontraditional Adult Relationships

Abstract

Recent decades have seen dramatic changes in Americans’ organization of their family lives. At the same time, laws affecting the family have undergone a significant evolution. 

Yet despite signs of progress, troubling inequities persist within and between families. In comparison to other countries, the US places unusually heavy emphasis on the family, particularly the married couple, as a legal and economic unit. The centrality of marriage as a source of material security has exacerbated income and wealth inequality. 

Although new forms of legal recognition for adult relationships have emerged, they are often modeled on marriage. As a result, many adult relationships – including relationships of more than two adults, nonconjugal relationships, and non-cohabiting relationships – are invisible to the law. Permitting legal recognition of a more diverse range of adult relationships will serve the goal of advancing autonomy. It will also extend the advantages of family recognition to many people who now lack them.