Noa-Ben Asher (Pace) has posted to SSRN her article “In the Shadow of a Myth: Bargaining for Same-Sex Divorce,” forthcoming in 78 Ohio St. L.J. (2017). Here is the abstract:
This Article identifies and offers solutions to an emerging problem in family law: same-sex divorce. The Article’s central claim is that parties to the first wave of same-sex divorces are not effectively bargaining against the backdrop of legal dissolution rules that would govern in the absence of an agreement. In other words, to use Robert Mnookin and Lewis Kornhauser’s terminology, they are not “bargaining in the shadow of the law.” Instead, the Article argues, many same-sex couples today bargain in the shadow of a myth that same-sex couples are egalitarian—that there are no vulnerable parties or power differentials in same-sex divorce. The Article shows how the myth of egalitarianism undermines current bargaining for same-sex divorce. First, the myth leads to what the Article calls divorce exceptionalism, that is when a party claims that existing marriage dissolution rules do not apply in same-sex divorce because they were designed to remedy the non-egalitarian conditions of different-sex marriages. Divorce exceptionalism disables effective bargaining because without default legal rules there is nothing to guide the bargaining process. Second, the myth of egalitarianism eliminates key bargaining chips: under a presumption of formal equality neither party really has anything to “give” or “get” in the bargain for divorce. Finally, the myth, combined with the general fog of uncertainty regarding how courts will treat same-sex divorces, may lead to increased strategic behavior. The Article proposes a realistic solution, arguing that the legal actors who participate in same-sex divorce, including lawyers, mediators, courts, and the parties themselves, should reject divorce exceptionalism and apply ordinary divorce rules. It also proposes to protect vulnerable parties by extending to same-sex divorce the current trend towards joint-custody presumptions. The myth of egalitarianism in same-sex couples, which was quite helpful in achieving marriage-equality, is now haunting the first wave of same-sex divorces and harming vulnerable parties. It is time to let the myth go and address the reality of same-sex marriage and divorce.
The full article is available here.
This is a paradigm-challenging article. I recommend it.
