Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

Abstract

Although cohabitants often live together in ways indistinguishable from those who are married, the law treats them differently than it does spouses. In Toward a Private Law of Intimates’ Obligations, Emily Stolzenberg asks why, identifies the need for reform, and brings the law of cohabitation into conversation with recent work in private law theory. This Response builds on Stolzenberg’s excellent article to think more about the different types of obligations involved in contract, marriage and cohabitation. Although the moral and legal obligations attaching to these relationships are all voluntary, they exhibit different degrees of choice-dependence, and choice figures into the existence and content of the obligations in different ways. All three relationships can also entail not only obligations but also legal privileges and powers. Disentangling structural and practical differences between contract, cohabitation and marriage suggests some hypotheses about why cohabitation presents such a challenge for the law.

Publication Citation

Forthcoming in Iowa L. Rev. Online (comment on Stolzenberg, Toward a Private Law of Intimates' Obligations, Iowa L. Rev. (2026))

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