Article by Jeanne Louise Carriere
In the summer of 1997, the Louisiana Legislature passed the Covenant Marriage Act, which permits couples to elect a type of marriage license that requires them to receive premarital counseling and a commitment to seek marital counseling, and that makes divorce more difficult than divorce under the civil code regime. The popular media represented the Act as a weapon against high divorce rates, while the few critics suggested that it would trap parties to bad marriages into a lifetime of unhappiness. Examination of the Act reveals that it is unlikely to fulfill either set of expectations. The premarital counseling that it mandates is too shallow to alert couples to their incompatibilities, and forced marital counseling for married couples in marital difficulties has, in the past, proven unable to forestall divorce. Moreover, the Act's more difficult and time-consuming divorce regime is reminiscent of the one in place during the 1970s, when divorce rates were in fact higher than at present; the same escape techniques used then can be used now by those who elect covenant marriages. The improbability that the Act will accomplish its goal does not mean that it is neutral in its effects, however. Its marital counseling provisions, if regarded as a requirement, could place abused spouses at risk, and its divorce regime will increase the conflict, litigiousness, and expense of divorce.
About the Author
Jeanne Louise Carriere. John Minor Wisdom Professor of Civil Law Emerita, Tulane University School of Law. J.D. 1986, Tulane University School of Law; M.A., Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles.
Citation
72 Tul. L. Rev. 1701 (1998)