{"title":"Unofficial Family Law","authors":"A. Estin","doi":"10.1017/CBO9781139013789.008","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This Essay explores a type of legal pluralism found in secular societies, including the United States, in which minority groups adhere to unofficial religious law norms within a larger framework of state family law. Official and unofficial law are sometimes closely interwoven, as with the formalization of marriage, and sometimes stand directly in opposition, as with laws prohibiting the practice of polygamy. In an intermediate position, these societies have seen a complex interaction between secular and religious law in the context of marriage dissolution. The different opportunities presented by each legal system may generate significant strategic behavior by individuals, and these risks have prompted careful collaboration between religious and secular authorities in a number of jurisdictions. In this collaboration, the secular state helps religious communities to define a space and an identity, and simultaneously seeks to establish the basic guarantees of citizenship within the larger society for all group members.","PeriodicalId":51610,"journal":{"name":"Iowa Law Review","volume":"94 1","pages":"449"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2010-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/CBO9781139013789.008","citationCount":"30","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Iowa Law Review","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139013789.008","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"LAW","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 30
Abstract
This Essay explores a type of legal pluralism found in secular societies, including the United States, in which minority groups adhere to unofficial religious law norms within a larger framework of state family law. Official and unofficial law are sometimes closely interwoven, as with the formalization of marriage, and sometimes stand directly in opposition, as with laws prohibiting the practice of polygamy. In an intermediate position, these societies have seen a complex interaction between secular and religious law in the context of marriage dissolution. The different opportunities presented by each legal system may generate significant strategic behavior by individuals, and these risks have prompted careful collaboration between religious and secular authorities in a number of jurisdictions. In this collaboration, the secular state helps religious communities to define a space and an identity, and simultaneously seeks to establish the basic guarantees of citizenship within the larger society for all group members.
期刊介绍:
Since its inception in 1915 as the Iowa Law Bulletin, the Iowa Law Review has served as a scholarly legal journal, noting and analyzing developments in the law and suggesting future paths for the law to follow. Since 1935, students have edited and have managed the Law Review, which is published five times annually. The Law Review ranks high among the top “high impact” legal periodicals in the country, and its subscribers include legal practitioners and law libraries throughout the world.