Lab b2: Marriage and Divorce laws
Marriage and Divorce laws
Marriage and divorce are highly regulated in countries on earth. Some people might still marry according to religious or customary laws and traditions, but at the end of the day, the state regulates how you live.
Planet o-box takes a completely different approach. All contracts between two consenting adults are made based on their free will and can be adapted to individual needs. There is no state-administered standard for marriage. Some people choose to get married according to religious or cultural standards, others choose to design their own version of marriage. While some religious institutions still provide basic guidelines and standards for what they define as marriage, the general construct is free to individual interpretation. This means: if you want to marry your partner, you can. If you want to marry your same-sex partner, you can. If you want to marry fifteen of the most beautiful people around you, great, as long as they consent!
Now it’s your turn: What contract would you choose? Let us know!
Steps we can take in our world:
Abolish all laws surrounding marriage
What experiences on Earth, past and present, help us understand life on the OboxPlanet?
For many individuals, marriage represents one of the most significant decisions in their lives. To better understand family life on the OboxPlanet, let’s examine the options available on Earth.
The state offers us a binary choice: yes or no. Saying “yes” means subjecting ourselves to a set of rules that may change over time. In a democratic system, these rules represent the compromise of the majority, inevitably leading to the slight frustration of some of the majority and major frustrations for a significant portion of the minority.
As for the type of laws, they are rather arbitrary and ever changing. In the 1980s in Switzerland, for example, women faced significant disadvantages in divorce proceedings, but later reforms reversed the situation to the other extreme. The increasing number of couples who choose not to marry in order to avoid rules and tax penalties find themselves subject to state regulations governing “married-like” relationships.
Last but not least, there are ongoing struggles related to same-sex relationships.
All of these conflicts could be mitigated if the state were to withdraw from regulating personal relationships. It is important to remember that the absence of laws does not imply a lack of rules. Private, contractual arrangements could provide a more flexible and efficient alternative to state regulations
Now it’s your turn: What contract would you choose? Let us know!
Things we could learn and implement from the OboxPlanet:
Abolish all marriage laws and requirements, privatize the courts
