Friendship, Marriage-Like Relationships, and Informal Marriage

Abstract

This chapter discusses issues of establishing adult relationships, including friendship and informal marriage, and how individuals have attempted to regulate their upcoming marriage by entering into prenuptial agreements. The road to marriage has traditionally consisted of romantic friendship, courtship, engagement, and then formal marriage. It is during the formal or informal engagement period that a couple may think of entering into a prenuptial agreement. However, this behavior pattern has changed dramatically in the past fifty years. There may no longer be defined periods on the road to marriage, and marriage itself may no longer be the final relationship between two people. Whatever the arrangement, the relevant legal questions are the following: What relationships should be labeled “family”; who should be authorized to make such a designation, the state or the parties themselves; and should the state regulate them? At the present time, two kinds of adult relationships that are not formally recognized by the state as marriage are contract cohabitation and domestic partnership or civil union.