Same Sex, Different States

Must a state in which gay marriage is not legal recognize such a marriage performed in another state? Most of the commonly offered answers are wrong. The Constitution does not require recognition in all cases, but it does forbid states from nullifying family relationships based in other states, or making themselves havens for people who are trying to escape obligations to their spouses and children. In this book, Andrew Koppelman offers workable legal solutions to the problems that arise when gay couples cross state borders. Drawing on historical precedents in which states held radically different moral views about marriage (such as marriages between kin, marriages involving very young individuals, and interracial marriages), Koppelman shows which state laws should govern in specific situations that today's gay couples may encounter as they travel or move from place to place. Americans are profoundly divided over same-sex marriage, and now that gay civil unions and marriages are legal in some states, the debates about what states can do have become increasingly urgent. Koppelman offers a sensible approach that will appeal to the best instincts of both sides.

ISBN 0300113404   Pages 224 ISBN13 9780300113402 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Yale University Press   Weight (grammes) 381 Imprint Yale University Press   Published in New Haven Format Hardback   Height (mm) 215 Publication date 10 Nov 2006   Width (mm) 139 Library of Congress 2006010460   Spine width (mm) 19 DEWEY 306.76   Academic level General, Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC22

1		How we got here		1
2		Marriage, choice of law, and public policy		12
3		Miscegenation in the conflict of laws		28
4		The stakes		51
5		Against blanket nonrecognition		69
6		Choice of law rules : the options		82
7		When to (and when not to) recognize same-sex marriages		97
8		The irrelevance of full faith and credit and the Defense of Marriage Act		114
9		The difference the mini-DOMAs make		137
10		Toward benign competition		149

"If same-sex marriages are lawfully performed in one state, must other states recognize those marriages? Koppelman has produced the best discussion, by far, of this important question. In the process, he clarifies a wide range of issues swirling about the same-sex marriage debate. This book is a genuine public service."-Cass Sunstein, Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Chicago -- Cass Sunstein

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