The marriage boom: Spanish and Swedish women making sense of marriage during the marriage boom

This article analyzes the marriage boom that took place during the middle decades of the twentieth century. The increase in nuptiality is analyzed in Spain and Sweden from a qualitative perspective, and the authors describe how cultural, social, economic and institutional transformations were understood by women who were in their reproductive period during the marriage boom. In-depth interviews were conducted in both places with 51 women born between 1919 and 1951. The authors argue that it is important that the ways in which the factors previously identified as decisive of the marriage boom are studied for their motivating power, and the way they were or were not made important in people's understandings of their marital practices. The results show that despite the differences between the national contexts of Spain and Sweden, three interrelated themes recurred when the interviewed women framed their marital choices: (1) the normalization of marriage as a life event; (2) religion; (3) and education and work life. The results also suggest that the women highlighted norm systems within which their choices and decisions were made, rather than describing individual choices and decisions as stemming from individual preferences and wishes.     

假结婚、假离婚与错结婚的认定和处理

婚姻法只规定了四种法定无效情形和一种可撤销婚姻。对于假结婚、假离婚与错结婚争睛形如何认定和处理，没有法律规定，实践中往往适用民法总则无效民事效力行为的规定，将其认定为无效婚姻。这是错误的，婚姻有效与无效有其独立的评判规则，不能适用适用民法总则。因而，假结婚、假离婚与错结婚一般不能认定其行为无效。     

Legal restrictions on marriage

Under the legal restrictions on marriage in the Tyrol and Vorarlberg region of Austria between 1820 and 1920, members of the lower classes could marry only with the prior consent of the village authorities. Local and provincial politicians justified the necessity of these laws on the basis of the overpopulation and widespread impoverishment, which, they alleged, had resulted from the rise in lower-class marriages since the onset of industrialization. An analysis of the background and objectives of these legal interventions into marital behavior, however, reveals a different picture in regard to their effect and their effectiveness. The limitations on marriage affected life most profoundly in precisely those areas where people already tended to marry less often and later in life. Where changes in marital behavior did occur, they did not conflict with traditional behavior but rather resulted from the adaptation of the latter to altered living and working conditions. Thus it was material considerations that led the group of new wage-earners to delay or even forego marriage. The analysis shows that the limitations on marriage were directed less against the supposed causes of impoverishment than towards the continuation of social inequality in marriage and the stabilization of the status quo.     

论禁婚亲

现代各国的禁婚亲制度大多源于罗马法。在罗马法中 ,禁婚亲制度已经比较完备 ,其按照亲属关系的性质和远近来确定禁婚亲范围的原则和方法被许多国家所继受。禁婚亲范围有相当的稳定性 ,但随着社会的发展和观念的变化 ,在一些国家有相对缩小的现象。中国古代社会里形成的禁婚亲制度具有很强的伦理性 ,但宗族主义色彩浓厚 ,禁婚亲属范围广 ,重男宗轻女系 ,故在社会和法律转型时期必然会被西方的禁婚亲制度所改造 ,重男轻女的观念被抛弃 ,禁婚亲范围逐渐缩小 ,我国台湾地区禁婚亲制度的演变印证了这一点。我国现行的禁婚亲制度 ,禁婚亲属范围适当 ,禁婚理由充分 ,应保持稳定 ,无需扩大 ,但对因收养形成的拟制血亲关系的禁婚范围应当明确加以规定。     

骗取婚姻证现象与立法缺失的困惑

实践中存在骗取婚姻证现象,但我国现行婚姻立法中并无该问题的具体处理规定,从而在实践中造成诸多困惑问题。因此,有必要从完善我国婚姻立法入手,对该现象做出明确而具体的处理规定。     

Early marriage in pre-modern France

In France, from the end of the seventeenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century, despite noticeable age fluctuations, most subjects of the French kings entered into matrimony well beyond the age of puberty. In the present article, females marrying when under the age of 20 will be considered “precocious,” following the principle that early marriages not only fell outside the result of normal distribution but were a forceful expression of the marriage behavior peculiar to certain couples. The analysis sought to determine whether these exceptional unions were idiosyncratic or whether they reflected rational conduct that could be generalized. Certain features stood out, without any single one being decisive because of the relative weakness of the differences observed. The daughter who married young was often well-born and literate. Coming from the South, she was more frequently found in data from the nineteenth rather than the eighteenth century. Her husband was also young and had grown up not far away from her. She had a mother and a mother-in-law who had been young brides and at least one sister who had married young. As the youngest of a large family, she often had lost her father.     

Early marriage in pre-modern France

In France, from the end of the seventeenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century, despite noticeable age fluctuations, most subjects of the French kings entered into matrimony well beyond the age of puberty. In the present article, females marrying when under the age of 20 will be considered “precocious,” following the principle that early marriages not only fell outside the result of normal distribution but were a forceful expression of the marriage behavior peculiar to certain couples. The analysis sought to determine whether these exceptional unions were idiosyncratic or whether they reflected rational conduct that could be generalized. Certain features stood out, without any single one being decisive because of the relative weakness of the differences observed. The daughter who married young was often well-born and literate. Coming from the South, she was more frequently found in data from the nineteenth rather than the eighteenth century. Her husband was also young and had grown up not far away from her. She had a mother and a mother-in-law who had been young brides and at least one sister who had married young. As the youngest of a large family, she often had lost her father.     

The welfare family

This article analyzes family transformations resulting from the impact of social welfare policies and modernization in Guadeloupe, an island in the French Caribbean. The analysis is taken from a study of three-generational families in which a “pivot” member between 49 and 53 years of age, one parent, and one adult child were interviewed. The study, combining both quantitative and qualitative methods, concerns the forms of cultural, domestic, and economic exchanges between the generations, in addition to the various social welfare allowances received by the members of the families who were interviewed. The results show the complementarity between public and family forms of support. They also show how social welfare benefits have transformed the respective social status of different generations, the functioning of family solidarity, and the ways that poverty is being fought.     

Mating (marriage) patterns and economic development

This paper looks at the relationship between economic development and mating (marriage) patterns in the very long run. For this purpose we introduce the Goldin and the Kuznets curves which relate female labour and income inequality with economic development respectively. To some extent, the Goldin and the Kuznets curves have followed opposite paths, which in turn, could illustrate how economic development has had an impact on mating (marriage) patterns, and thus household formation. The likely convergence in mating patterns among hunter–gatherers across societies vanished after the Neolithic revolution. Then, African polygyny and the ‘European’ marriage pattern developed into the most significant exceptions to the traditional dictate of nature “…an early attachment to one woman” (Malthus, 1798: pp. 15). Nowadays, monogamy and late attachments have become the norm rather than an exception.     

Disconnected relationship values and marriage policies in England

The article examines relationship values which influence the government’s marriage-related policies. It constructs a framework of core values as the ‘conception of the desirable’ to highlight a central problem for the government: there are many conflicting values that can be identified as potentially relevant. Traditional morality and equality highlight marriage as the ultimate goal for heterosexual and same-sex couples by emphasising responsibility, commitment and stability to encourage and strengthen couple relationships. The articulation of these values associated with celebrating marriage is evident in policies such as transferable tax allowances for married couples and couple relationship education. However, marriage is a public and a private institution which encompasses disconnected values. The article analyses the different values that policy-makers confront by examining evidence from interviews with stakeholders which suggests that marriage-related policies do not necessarily resonate with various actors’ understanding of relationship values. They compete with values such as individual autonomy, the desire for financial security and diverse relationships.     

Childhood physical punishment and problem solving in marriage

Drawing from social learning theories and symbolic interactionist understandings of social life, the authors suggest that physical punishment teaches aggressive and controlling strategies for solving the problems of living together and hinders the development of important problem-solving skills, specifically the ability to role take with others. These strategies and skills become part of an individual's toolkit for problem resolution within his or her marriage. The analysis is based on 188 married couples in Washington State who participated in a longitudinal study of the first 2 years of marriage. The analysis reveals the following: Individuals who were physically punished during childhood are more likely to engage in physical and verbal aggression with their spouses, individuals who were physically punished during childhood are more controlling with their spouses, and individuals who were physically punished during childhood are less able to take their spouse's perspective.     

Family, welfare, and delinquency

Data from a five-wave panel probability sample of families in the State of Washington were analyzed to test the hypothesis that female headship and welfare experience increased participation in and frequency of juvenile delinquency. Appropriate statistical models of random effect probit and negative binomial were employed. Results indicated that there were no direct effects of female headship and welfare experience on either prevalence or frequency of juvenile delinquency. Instead, it was found that the number of adult presence in a household and the child's school attachment significantly reduced the probability of delinquency and the tendency of being referred again in court.     

Images of welfare in law and society: the British welfare state in comparative perspective

Designed by Beveridge and built by Attlee's post-war Labour government, the welfare state was created during the 1940s. Britain has been seen – in domestic debates and internationally – as a world first: the place where both the idea and the practice of the welfare state were invented. I draw together comparative welfare state analysis with law and society scholarship (previously largely developed in isolation from one another) – as well as using British political cartoons as a source – to develop a revisionist historical critique of this conventional wisdom. First, the British welfare state has always been comparatively parsimonious. Second, the idea of the welfare state seems to have its origins outside the United Kingdom and this terminology was adopted relatively late and with some ambivalence in public debate and scholarly analysis. Third, a large body of socio-legal scholarship shows that robust ‘welfare rights’ were never embedded in the British ‘welfare state’.     

The misbegotten marriage of soft psychology and bad law

The proposal to justify homicide by psychological self-defense rests on an insecure scientific foundation and would be legally mischievous. The core concepts are unacceptably vague and lack rigorous empirical support. The proposed defense is better characterized as an excuse than as a justification because rational victims of purely psychological abuse do have socially preferrable alternatives to homicide, and the proposal is inconsistent with modern criminal law that limits justifications for homicide. The defense would create substantial administrative problems and would facilitate adoption or expansion of related undesirable doctrines. The best response to abhorrent physical and psychological abuse is not unnecessary further violence, but the creation of adequate deterrents and alternative solutions for victims.