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Against Marriage argues that marriage violates both equality and liberty and should not be recognized by the state. Clare Chambers shows how feminist and liberal principles require creation of a marriage-free state: one in which private marriages, whether religious or secular, would have no legal status. Part One makes the case against marriage. Chambers investigates the critique of marriage that has developed within feminist and liberal theory. Feminists have long argued that state-recognised marriage is a violation of equality. Chambers endorses the feminist view and argues, in contrast to recent egalitarian pro-marriage movements, that same-sex marriage is not enough to make marriage equal. The egalitarian case against marriage is the most fundamental argument of Against Marriage. But Chambers also argues that state-recognised marriage violates liberty, including the political liberal version of liberty that is based on neutrality between conceptions of the good. Part Two sets out the case for the marriage-free state. Chambers criticizes recent arguments that traditional marriage should be replaced with either a reformed version of marriage, such as civil partnership, or a purely contractual model of relationship regulation. She then sets out a new model for the legal regulation of personal relationships. Instead of regulating by status, the state should regulate relationships according to the practices they involve. Instead of regulating relationships holistically, assuming that relationship practices are bundled together in one significant relationship, the marriage-free state regulates practices on a piecemeal basis. The marriage-free state thus employs piecemeal, practice-based regulation. It may regulate private marriages, including religious marriages, so as to protect equality. But it takes no interest in defining or protecting the meaning of marriage.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Part One: Against Marriage
- 1: Marriage as a Violation of Equality
- 2: Marriage as a Violation of Liberty
- 3: A Liberal Defence of Marriage?
- Part Two: The Marriage-Free State
- 4: The Limitations of Contract
- 5: Regulating Relationships in the Marriage-Free State
- 6: Marriage in the Marriage-Free State
- Conclusion
About the author
Clare Chambers,
University Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Cambridge
Summary
Clare Chambers argues that marriage violates both equality and liberty and should not be trecognized by the state. She shows how feminist and liberal principles require creation of a marriage-free state: one in which private marriages, whether religious or secular, would have no legal status.
Additional text
Clare Chambers puts together a well thought out rejection of state recognized marriage based on the notion that such marriages are gendered and heterosexual in nature while undermining liberty and equality. ... The book is interesting and thought-provoking and Chambers is able to explain why she believes that a marriage-free state is needed.
