Professor Johanna E. Bond, Associate Professor of Law, recently published her article, Culture, Dissent, and the State: The Example of Commonwealth African Marriage Law, 14 Yale Hum. Rts. & Dev. L.J. 101 (2011), in the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal.
The article is the first to explore the transnational applicability of recent theoretical critiques of marriage emanating largely from the global North. Critics of contemporary marriage charge that the state’s role in marriage regulation is obsolete, preferring to let contract law or generalized registration systems govern intimate relationships. Professor Bond rejects the notion that the state should minimize its role in marriage regulation. Indeed, she argues that a robust, rather than enervated, state response is necessary to combat inequality in individual relationships and to ensure equality among different types of intimate associations. Although the article explores marriage law in Africa as a case study, it also provides a blueprint for resolving broader theoretical questions regarding the proper role for the state in marriage regulation.
Congratulations to Professor Bond.
