Abstract
Feminist opposition to the use of cohabitationcontracts for the private regulation of personalrelations has been predicated on the classical readingof contract as commerce. On this reading,cohabitation contracts construct cohabitants'obligations as commercial and typically detrimental towomen because of their weaker bargaining power. Butthe premisses of classical contract theory are beingundermined by radical critiques which emphasize theimportance of relationality in the reading ofcontract. On such critiques, the obligationsconstructed by cohabitation contracts need no longerexclude considerations of the parties' differentfinancial status and social circumstances. Theconstruction of cohabitants' obligations canaccordingly foreground fairness and equality, both indrafting and in enforcing cohabitation contracts. Inthis way, the conceptualization of contract asrelationality encourages the use of cohabitationcontracts as progressive mechanisms for thedemocratization of personal relations.
REFERENCES
Barton, C., Cohabitation Contracts (Aldershot: Gower, 1985).
Bottomley, A. et al., The Cohabitation Handbook (London: Pluto, 1981).
Bradley, D., “The Development of a Legal Status for Unmarried Cohabitants in Sweden”, Anglo-American Law Review 18/4 (1989), 322-334.
Brandes, J.R., “The Validity of Prenuptial Agreements”, New York Law Journal, December 1998, at http:/www.brandeslaw.com/validity of prenuptial agreement.htm.
Brod, G., “Premarital Agreements and Gender Justice”, Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 6/2 (1994), 229-295.
Bromley, P.M. and Lowe, N.V., Bromley's Family Law, 8th edn. (London: Butterworths, 1992).
Brown, B., “Risking the Feminine: Mary Joe Frug on Law”, Economy and Society 23/3 (1994), 355-373.
Campbell, D. and Harris, D., “Flexibility in Long-term Contractual Relationships: The Role of Co-operation”, Journal of Law and Society 20/2 (1993), 166-191.
Cooke, P.J. and Oughton, D.W., The Common Law of Obligations (London: Butterworths, 1989).
Cotterrell, R., The Sociology of Law (London: Butterworths, 1984).
Dalton, C., “Deconstructing Contract Doctrine”, in Feminist Legal Theory: Readings in Law and Gender, ed. K.T. Bartlett and R. Kennedy (London: Westview Press, 1991).
Detmold, M., “Provocation and Murder: Sovereignty and Multiculture”, Sydney Law Review 19/1 (1997), 5-31.
Dewar, J., Law and the Family, 2nd edn. (London: Butterworths, 1992).
Elliott, C. and Quinn, F., Contract Law (Harlow: Longman, 1999).
Fried, C., Contract as Promise (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1981).
Frug, M.J., Postmodern Legal Feminism (London: Routledge, 1992).
Gloag, W.M., Contract (Edinburgh, 1929).
Guggenheimer, L., “A Modest Proposal: The Feminomics of Drafting Premarital Agreements”, Women's Rights Law Reporter 17/2 (1996), 147-207.
Herman, D., “A Jurisprudence of One's Own?: Ruthann Robson's Lesbian Legal Theory”, in A Simple Matter of Justice: Theorising Lesbian and Gay Politics, ed. A.R. Wilson (London: Cassell, 1994).
Hoff, J., Law, Gender and Injustice: A Legal History of US Women (New York: New York University Press, 1991).
Hoggett, B.M. and Pearl, D.S., The Family, Law and Society: Cases and Materials, 3rd edn. (London: Butterworths, 1991).
Kingdom, E., “Cohabitation Contracts and Equality”, International Journal of the Sociology of Law 18 (1990), 287-298.
Kingdom, E., “Cohabitation Rights: Status, Contract or Dependence?”, Ch. 6, in What's Wrong with Rights?: Problems for Feminist Politics of Law, E. Kingdom (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991).
Kingdom, E., “Cohabitation Contracts: A Socialist Feminist Issue”, Ch. 5, in What's Wrong with Rights?:Problems for Feminist Politics of Law, E. Kingdom (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991a).
Kingdom, E., Lawyers Will Draft Anything: Attitudes to Cohabitation Contracts (Department of Sociology, University of Liverpool, 1994) Occasional Paper Number 5.
Kingdom, E., “Review”, Social and Legal Studies 3/3 (1994a), 432-435.
Kingdom, E., “Review”, Political Theory Newsletter 6/2 (1994b), 141-143.
Kingdom, E., “Cohabitation Contracts and the Private Regulation of Time”, Time and Society 5/2 (1996), 47-58.
Kingdom, E., “Citizenship and Democracy: Feminist Politics of Citizenship and Radical Democratic Politics”, in Feminist Perspectives on Public Law, ed. S. Millns and N. Whitty (London: Cavendish, 1999).
Law Society, Maintenance and Capital Provision on Divorce (1991).
Law Society, Extra Legal Protection for Unmarried Couples (1999).
Lush, D., Cohabitation and Co-Ownership Precedents (Bristol: Jordan Publishing, 1993).
Macneil, I., “Contracts: Adjustment of Long-Term Economic Relations under Classical, Neoclassical, and Relational Contract Law”, Northwestern University Law Review 72/6 (1978), 854-905.
Macneil, I., The New Social Contract (Yale: Yale University Press, 1980).
Macneil, I., “Economic Analysis of Contractual Relations: its Shortfalls and the Need for a 'Rich Classificatory Apparatus' “, Northwestern University Law Review 75/6 (1981), 1018-1063.
Mee, J., “Contract Law-Public Law for the New Millennium”, Dublin University Law Review 18 (1997), 149-160.
Mee, J., The Property Rights of Cohabitees (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 1999).
Ministerial Group on the Family, Supporting Families: A Consultation Document (1999).
Naffine, N., Law and the Sexes: Explorations in Feminist Jurisprudence (London: Allen and Unwin, 1990).
Nunciato, D.C., “Gender Equality: States as Laboratories”, Virginia Law Review 80/4 (1994), 945-977.
Oliver, D., Cohabitation: the Legal Implications (Bicester: Commerce Clearing House, 1987).
Olsen, F., “The Family and the Market: A Study of Ideology and Legal Reform”, Harvard Law Review 96 (1983) 1497-1578.
Parker, S., Cohabitees, 2nd edn. (London: Barry Rose/Kluwer Law Publishers, 1987).
Pateman, C., The Sexual Contract (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988).
Priest, J., Families Outside Marriage, 2nd edn. (Bristol: Jordan Publishing, 1993).
Regan, M.C. Jr., Family Law and the Pursuit of Intimacy (New York and London: New York University Press, 1993).
Robson, R. and Valentine, S.E., “Lov(h)ers: Lesbians as Intimate Partners and Lesbian Legal Theory”, Temple Law Review 63 (1990), 511-541.
Samuelson, E.D., Unmarried Couples: A Guide to Your Legal Rights (New York: Plenum Press, 1992).
Scottish Law Commission, Discussion Paper No. 86, The Effects of Cohabitation in Private Law (1990).
Scottish Law Commission, Report on Family Law (1992).
Thomson, A., “The Law of Contract”, in The Critical Lawyers' Handbook, ed. I. Grigg-Spall and P. Ireland (London: Pluto Press, 1991).
Unger, R., The Critical Legal Studies Movement (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1986).
Weitzman, L.J., The Marriage Contract: Spouses, Lovers and the Law (New York: The Free Press, 1981).
Wightman, J., Contract: A Critical Commentary (London: Pluto Press, 1996).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kingdom, E. Cohabitation Contracts and the Democratization of Personal Relations. Feminist Legal Studies 8, 5–27 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009275628070
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009275628070