Abstract
This article reviews the possible justifications for legal recognition of marriage and finds some, such as encouraging stable, loving relationships, unpersuasive. However, other rationales-including protecting children, socializing adults, and promoting individual happiness-are valid, and these rationales apply only to traditional marriages. Accordingly, society has strong reasons to favor traditional marriage and to deny such treatment to the unmarried and to homosexual, endogamous and bestial relationships.
Keywords
Marriage
Publication Date
1999
Document Type
Article
Place of Original Publication
Journal of Law & Politics
Publication Information
15 Journal of Law & Politics 581 (1999)
Repository Citation
Dent, George W., "The Defense of Traditional Marriage" (1999). Faculty Publications. 515.
https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/faculty_publications/515
