The Marriage Buyout

From divorce court to popular culture, alimony
is a dirty word. Unpopular and rarely ordered, the awards are frequently
inconsistent and unpredictable. The institution itself is often viewed as an
historical relic that harkens back to a gendered past in which women lacked the
economic independence to free themselves from economic support by their spouses.
In short, critics of alimony claim it has no place in contemporary visions of
marriage as a partnership of equals. But as Cynthia Lee Starnes argues in The
Marriage Buyout, alimony is often the only practical tool for ensuring that divorce does not treat
today’s primary caregivers as if they were suckers. Her solution is to
radically reconceptualize alimony as a marriage buyout.

Starnes’s buyouts draw on a partnership model of marriage that reinforces
communal norms of marriage, providing a gender-neutral alternative to alimony
that assumes equality in spousal contribution, responsibility, and right. Her
quantification formulae support new default rules that make buyouts more
certain and predictable than their current alimony counterparts. Looking beyond
alimony, Starnes outlines a new vision of marriages with children, describing a
co-parenting partnership between committed couples, and the conceptual basis
for income sharing between divorced parents of minor children. Ultimately,
under a partnership model, the focus of alimony is on gain rather than loss and
equality rather than power: a spouse with disparately low earnings isn’t a
sucker or a victim dependent on a fixed alimony payment, but rather an equal
stakeholder in marriage who is entitled at divorce to share any gains the
marriage produced.

Cynthia Lee Starnes is The John F. Schaefer Chair in Matrimonial Law at Michigan State University College of Law.

Theresa Glennon,Temple University Beasley School of Law:
Professor Starnes rigorously analyzes our outmoded, gender-imbalanced approach to the financial effects of marital, cohabitant and co-parental relationship dissolution. Her devastating analysis makes it clear that policymakers concerned about the well-being of all family members after divorce or separation should take heed of her courageous, well-grounded and clearsighted proposals to reconceptualize economic justice in the family.

Barbara A. Atwood,Mary Anne Richey Professor of Law Emerita, University of Arizona:
The Marriage Buyout is an unusual book: it is both entertaining and profound. Professor Starnes has produced a readable and incisive critique of alimony law within the United States and elsewhere as well as a creative framework for reform. Law students and practicing lawyers will surely benefit from her careful exposition of competing approaches to alimony. Her proposed use of a partnership buyout model would take us a long way toward a coherent and fair theory of alimony. The book should be read, and read again, by any groups involved in family law reform.

Naomi Cahn,Harold H. Greene Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School:
The Marriage Buyout is a comprehensive and thorough review of alimony's history, rationale, promises, and pitfalls. To solve the dilemmas of contemporary alimony law, the book advocates a pathbreaking solution that makes 'I do' really matter. Cynthia Lee Starnes is already widely recognized for her profound insights into alimony, and this book provides an even stronger basis for that reputation. Although the book is centered on alimony, Starnes applies her analytical lens to other issues that arise at the end of marriage, providing new insights into our entire system of divorce.