Perspectives on Nonmarital Relationships

• Date: 01 January 2020
• Published date: 01 January 2020
• Author: Emily J. Stolzenberg,Naomi R. Cahn,Kaiponanea T. Matsumura,Albertina Antognini
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12465

SPECIAL FEATURE: NONMARRIAGE

PERSPECTIVES ON NONMARITAL RELATIONSHIPS

Albertina Antognini, Naomi R. Cahn, Kaiponanea T. Matsumura, and Emily J. Stolzenberg

†

Marriage is no longer the only common way to structure adult intimate relationships. In the

United States today, adults live in a variety of nonmarital relationships, ranging from committed

partners who cohabit to people who cohabit with varying levels of commitment,

1

to committed part-

ners who live apart.

2

These kinds of nonmarital relationships are increasingly common. Today, there

are more than eight million cohabiting nonmarital different-sex couples, including about three mil-

lion households with children, as well as approximately 400,000 same-sex cohabiting couples.

3

The

number of committed partners living apart likely equals or exceeds the number of cohabitants.

4

And some intimate partners are in relationships with multiple people at the same time.

5

Indeed, sev-

eral recent studies report that approximately four to five percent of Americans are currently in a

consensually nonmonogamous relationship.

6

Adults may live their intimate lives outside of marriage for many reasons. Partners may cohabit

for economic motives, such as sharing living expenses, or because they may not feel financially sta-

ble enough to marry.

7

They may also cohabit to determine if they are compatible; indeed, most mar-

riages today begin with cohabitation.

8

Some intimate partners may also eschew marriage because

they fear divorce, or because they have ethical or other personal objections to the institution. Addi-

tionally, some, like those in plural unions, cannot legally marry.

Legal and law reform responses to these relationships vary, but have generally lagged behind the

pace of social change.

9

Part of the problem is definitional. The category of “nonmarriage”is both

legally under-defined and sociologically under-institutionalized. Unlike marriage, in which status-

based laws establish spousal and third-party rights and obligations during ongoing relationships and

upon termination, nonmarital relationships have historically been subject to comparatively little reg-

ulation.

10

And unlike marriage, which carries a well-developed set of social meanings, nonmarital

relationships lack a defining set of social nor ms to guide and reinforce par tners’behavior.

11

To address the definitional problem, scholars across disciplines have been studying different

aspects of, and approaches to, the phenomenon of nonmarital relationships. About two years ago, a

few of us began discussing the possibility of organizing a conference on nonmarriage that would be

global in scope. Our goal was to provide an opportunity for scholars from various perspectives, dis-

ciplines, and countries to engage with multiple aspects of nonmarital relationships, as well as with

each other. We drafted a call for papers, reviewed submissions, prepared a schedule, and communi-

cated with participants.

The culmination of these efforts—a“Roundtable on Nonmarriage”with twenty-five interdisci-

plinary scholars held at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law in

Corresponding: emily.j.stolzenberg@hofstra.edu

†

Associate Professor of Law, University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law; Harold H. Greene Professor of Law,

George Washington University Law School; Associate Professor of Law, Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor

College of Law; Visiting Assistant Professor of Law,Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University.

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 58 No. 1, January 2020 142–144

© 2020 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts