Modernizing Marriage through E-Marriage
presented by the Michigan State Law Review
Michigan State University College of Law
November 11 -12, 2010
For much of the history of marriage licensing, some couples have fallen into a zone of ineligibility. Yet getting married is easy. Everyone knows how to do it--get a license and take part in a ceremony, most often near one’s home. But many couples—from those separated by great distance as result of military service or other factors to same-sex partners—cannot use this simple procedure. The E-Marriage symposium will examine reforming marriage licensing in the United States to meet the needs of modern couples.
In particular, the symposium will begin with a proposal, advanced by Professors Candeub and Kuykendall in their article, “Modernizing Marriage,” forthcoming in the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, for states to exercise their authority to offer their marriage laws to couples outside the state. This proposal represents a federalist approach to spreading marriage access to all couples. It avoids the hazards of a constitutional resolution for same-sex marriage, and allows couples to have better access to marriage law that they can “consume” in their own communities.