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2007 Wis. L. Rev. 827 (2007)
Postnuptial Agreements

handle is hein.journals/wlr2007 and id is 839 raw text is: POSTNUPTIAL AGREEMENTS SEAN HANNON WILLIAMS* I. Introduction ........................................................... 828 II. Overview of Postnuptial Contracting ............................. 832 A. An Anecdotal Overview of Common Types of Postnuptial Agreements and Common Circumstances That Lead to Them ............................................. 832 B. A Critical Overview of Current Law ........................ 838 1. C onsideration ............................................... 840 2. Enforcement-Time Fairness Review .................... 841 3. Prohibitions, Signing-Time Fairness Review, and Presumptions of Coercion ................................ 843 III. The Usefulness of Postnuptial Agreements ...................... 845 A. Efficiency Gains and Investment Incentives ................ 845 1. Advantages Compared to Alimony ...................... 847 2. Advantages Compared to Prenuptial Agreements ..... 848 B. Potential Efficiency Costs ..................................... 850 IV. Bargaining Theory and its Application to Postnuptial A greem ents ........................................................... 851 A. Information Quality and Asymmetrical Information ...... 854 B . C ost of D elay ................................................... 855 C . Risk A version ................................................... 857 D . Outside Options ................................................ 862 E. Putting it all Together ......................................... 868 V. A Normative Evaluation of Postnuptial Contracting ........... 871 A. The Liberal-Feminist Defense: Both Spouses Benefit .... 871 B. The Communitarian Critique and a Brief Response ....... 877 V I. C onclusion ............................................................ 879 V II. A ppendix .............................................................. 881 * Research Fellow, Harvard Law School, Program on the Legal Profession; J.D., University of Chicago Law School. For helpful comments and suggestions, I thank Richard Epstein, Matthew Stephenson, Katherine Silbaugh, Elizabeth Bartholet, Ashish Nanda, Sonja Starr, I. Glenn Cohen, Carissa Byrne Hessick, F. Andrew Hessick, and Sam Jordan. Thanks also to the participants in the Climenko Fellowship Scholarship Workshop and to Mark Murphy for exceptional research assistance

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