Posted by JohnX on
URL: https://coalpha.arkian.net/Joining-the-private-members-forum-tp6861032p6890661.html

fschmidt wrote

A contract is an agreement between parties which specifies what each party will do for the other.  By this definition, a marriage license is not a contract.  There is no signed agreement.  There is no obligation on the part of the wife which violates the concept of "consideration".

But there is, the wife isn't legally allowed to marry someone else if she's already married."[A]bstinence from a future action" counts as a consideration according to your link. As for the lack of a signed agreement I take the wedding to be an equivalent. Of course the vows are not legally binding anymore, but there are other things that are (such as that about not marrying someone else).

You already know it, but I still feel like stressing that I'm not defending modern marriages. It's ridiculous to use those vows while depriving them of all meaning.

It also isn't really a social union since we now have men and women living together outside of marriage who are just as united as those in marriage.  The modern marriage license doesn't change the nature of this union in a social sense.

That could be true of traditional marriages as well (but it wouldn't be easy or common).

I don't know much about Happy Bachelors, where you are from.  So more than giving you a hard time, I am just curious how how you think.  I don't mind at all if people disagree with me as long they don't resort to insults.  I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be a member of CoAlpha.

All right.