Regulating Nonmarriage

In the Closing Thoughts column of UK Law Notes, Prof. Albertina Antognini discusses her research on the regulation of nonmarriage. Two years have elapsed since the Supreme Court recognized the constitutional right to marry in the landmark case of Obergefell v. Hodges. Much ink has been spilled in the opinion’s aftermath by scholars who have in turn lauded it for its promotion of dignity and equality, criticized it for having a conservative vision of what marriage entails, or pored over its reasoning to better understand the future it has ushered in. Underlying the opinion, and the recent scholarly debate it has generated, is the centrality of marriage – to the individual, to society, to the law