It’s time to embed pre-nuptials into our marriage law

By John Cowan

Recently a friend of mine went through a painful and costly divorce. This caused me to think about the need for an urgent update of marriage law in England and Wales.

It’s a strange predicament when in business a partnership can contain clauses to allow partners to go separate ways, yet that most important act of union – marriage – does not allow parties to plan for the end of the partnership.

With divorce rates now at 11.9 per 1,000 marriages and increasing numbers of young people like myself opting for a less structured relationship model, now would be a good time to put before Parliament a Marriage Law Reform Bill. Such a bill could address issues that reflect the way modern families live and could tackle some of the strange situations in current UK marriage law. Because when institutions do not move with the times they become irrelevant.

So what should be changed and what impact might those changes have?

One would be compulsory pre-nuptial agreements. These might benefit the health security of the parties involved, as – should the relationship fail – they would not have to go through the whole circus of the courts to gain a divorce: witness, for example, the case of McCartney vs McCartney.

Society would also be better, as those individuals who seek to economically gain from relationships would not seek those relationships without due care, leading to greater confidence in the institution of marriage.

This union of economic and emotional bonds would enable a healthier environment in which childcare and other household tasks could be shared in a manner which suited all parties involved.