Friend v. Friend
| Publication year | 2011 |
| Pages | 104 |
2011, July, Pg. 104. Friend v. Friend
July 2011
Vol. 40, No. 7 [Page 104]
Review of Legal Resources
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Friend v. Friend
by Ethan J. Leib
245 pp.; $29.95
Oxford University Press, 2010
198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016
(866) 445-8685; www.oup.com
Reviewedby Angela C. Aibner
Angela C. Aibner is an associate at Baldwin Morgan and Rider, PC-(303) 623-1832, angela@bmrpc.com.
Friend v. Friend is, as proclaimedby its author Ethan Leib, an "effort to issue a clear call that we ought to be using our public institutions to help the personal relationship that helps us so centrally: intimate friendship." In short, the book promotes the controversial idea that our friendships should be regulatedby the law. Leib, a professor of law at the University of California Hastings College of Law, theorizes that because our friendships are similar in form to our marital relationships, we should choose to regulate our friendships the same way.
Among the perks that Leib argues should be enjoyedby friends are tax deductions for caring for friends and perhaps even for initiating or forging friendships; the ability to make end-of-life decisions for our friends; the ability to file wrongful death suits on behalf of our friends; and a Friends Medical Leave Act of sorts, allowing friends to obtain time off work to care for one another. He even opines that a friend registration process or ceremony to recognize the union of two friends would aid in recognition of our "true" friends.
The book also promotes the idea of friends as fiduciaries. In Chapter 5, Leib argues that friends should be recognized as each others' strictest of fiduciaries. He notes that, when hearing cases arising...
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