The Discourse of 'Contract' and the Law of Marriage

Marriage is often compared to a "contract." The contract analogy appears to be an argument about the law of marriage based on a settled concept called "contract." But it is in fact an assertion of a contested view of "contract": that legitimate obligation must derive from consent. This focus on consent ignores another, contradictory, strand of contract law that imposes obligations without consent. The pervasiveness of the consent-centered "contract" analogy affects our understanding of "contract" as much as it affects our understanding of marriage