Nonmarital Norms

What happens when family law and family norms move apart—and do so in different ways for different parts of the population? Nonmarital cohabitation has become so widespread in North America and Europe over the past halfcentury that it has changed from a legally stigmatized to a legally accepted status. Despite this, the development and institutionalization of marital versus nonmarital norms continue to vary by country. While legal standards have traditionally reinforced mainstream understandings of marriage, neither legal norms nor societal mores shape unmarried relationships to the same degree. Instead, unmarried relationships remain far more varied than married ones, and the legal standards that govern them do not necessarily correspond to the parties’ expectations as completely as they do within modern marriages. This disconnect happened in part because unmarried relationships reflect differing attitudes toward marriage in different counties and in part because the reasons couple do not marry vary within different communities, even within the same country. These differences complicate the legal regulation of unmarried relationships....