Law in the news Marriage and divorce
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The National Educational ready o network presents a law in the news with Professor
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Joseph R. Julan associate dean of the University of Michigan Law
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School.
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Our subject marriage and divorce our informant once again he's getting to
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be a regular PROFESSOR WILLIAM J peers the president of the Commission on the uniform state
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laws. Bill the body you now had in the commission was organized
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in 1892. It had a single charge to provide
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uniform law proposals for the statutes governing the marital relationship
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as far as I can tell on this one the commission has been a complete bust.
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And I wondered exactly why and if there is any contemporary
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justification for the marriage and divorce laws of New York to be so far
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different from those of Nevada.
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Well the problem is the one that's been with us for a long time and as you mentioned
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when the commissioners were first starting nice in 1892 it was then a
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problem as you know the rights duties and privileges of all of
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us in the family relationship grow out of marriage and whether or not there is
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a valid marriage. Certain rights and duties and obligations
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and flow if a valid marriage is found to exist. With an increasing
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mobile population of course the subject has become of even greater concern. Now why
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haven't we done anything about it previously. Well frankly we ran into a great deal of
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political difficulty with respect to any proposals in this area for the first
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time. It now appears as if some common agreements can be
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reached about the status of marriage in the American society. There's less
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opposition from religious organizations and there's been in the past. And
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therefore we're extremely hopeful of providing a uniform marriage and
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divorce law throughout the United States. The present time for example
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there are also status requirements before persons can be married.
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Take for example one little situation with respect to age in Michigan a male
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can marry at the age of 18. And many other states you cannot marry until he's
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21. Similar discrepancies exist with respect to
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females. There are also various requirements with respect to physical
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health and mental health standards varied tremendously. And
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then we end up in our present situation in which certain types of marriage is being called
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void. In the fact that they never existed they were void from the beginning because certain
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qualifications were and weren't met. Others are called voidable which can be set
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aside by a number of proceedings. The result is the children of these
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marriages. Never Neverland from the standpoint of legal
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status although we have tried through many other efforts to legitimate those children.
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The fact is that the present time. The situation is so
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confused that many of our statutes frankly recognize this and even
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take into account what we might even call the informal marriage. Now our
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problem has been that for the rich of course they could escape to Nevada or to Mexico for
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divorce and rearrangement of their lives. But for the poor This has
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not been possible so we have a large part of our society that is living
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under informal arrangements. So the National Conference now proposes
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to undertake the drafting of a uniform marriage and divorce statute first to
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decide what kinds of views this just controls society should exercise
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over you for marriages as an example. We know that there's a tremendous breakdown in youthful
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marriages but what kinds of rules should society impose with respect to when can a
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young person get married. And as you know many of these marriages the wife
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is pregnant at the time of the marriage what you do what you do about the support problems of the
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family and that type of case. The other thing of course is the breakdown of the marriage
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what happens when we do have that situation. The present time our laws are
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based around doctrine. Somebody has got to be wrong. But 90 percent of our divorces
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are non contested. But where there is a contest on both sides for example in
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some states show fault and of course in an ordinary marriage that is apt to exist.
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But then no divorce can be given because both are at fault. We are looking toward the
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idea of let's look at the marriage as a whole. If it has broken down
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let's dissolve the marriage legally.
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If you have some ideas on what the laws on marriage and divorce should say.
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Right Professor William J Piers University of Michigan Law School Professor
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Joseph Farr Julan associate dean of the University of Michigan Law School as
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presented law in the news recorded by the University of Michigan broadcasting
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services. This is the national educational radio network.
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