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19 Wis. Women's L.J. 141 (2004)
Rehabilitating Partnership Marriage as a Theory of Wealth Distribution at Divorce: In Recognition of a Shared LIfe

handle is hein.journals/wiswo19 and id is 147 raw text is: ARTICLES REHABILITATING PARTNERSHIP MARRIAGE AS A THEORY OF WEALTH DISTRIBUTION AT DIVORCE: IN RECOGNITION OF A SHARED LIFE Alicia Brokars Kelly* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ............................................ 142 II. THE PARTNERSHIP IDEAL AND ITS ORIGINS IN FAMILY LAw. 146 A. The Basic Marital Partnership Concept ................. 146 B. The Emergence of Partnership Theory in Family Law ..... 148 C. The Integration of Partnership Marriage into Contemporary Law ................................... 157 III. CURRENT CONSTRUCTIONS OF PARTNERSHIP THEORY AND ITS LIMITATIONS ............................................ 160 A. The Result-Equality Dilemma .......................... 160 B. The Mistake of Limiting Partnership Theory to Traditional Property ................................ 163 C. The Clean Break Dream ............................... 166 D. The Results of Measuring Contribution: Devaluation of W omen's W ork ....................................... 167 E. The Impracticable Task of Measuring Contribution ...... 172 F. The Misguided Search for a Direct Causal Link ......... 173 G. The Uncomfortable Portrait of Marriage as an Economic Exchange ............................................ 175 * Associate Professor of Law, Widener University School of Law. Part of the title for this piece was inspired by Elizabeth S. Scott's article, Rehabilitating Liberalism in Modern Divorce Law, 1994 UTAH L. REv. 687 (1994). I use the term rehabilitation as she did, in the sense that there is a core idea or set of ideas behind a term that has merit, but that the term has been distorted in some way and yet can be reformed. I am grateful for the support, advice, research tips and helpful comments on earlier versions of this piece from Rachel Arnow-Richman, Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, June Carbone, Fran Catania, John Culhane, Erin Daly, Martha Garrison, Theresa Glennon, Susan Goldberg, Melanie Jacobs, Julia McLaughlin, Jane Murphy, Jana Singer and Cynthia Lee Starnes. Thanks too to the participants of the International Society of Family Law North American Conference in June 2003 where I presented this work in an earlier stage of development. I am also grateful to Mona Parikh for her wonderful research assistance. As always, I am very thankful to my husband Gerry for his continued support and sharing of this project (particularly in giving extra care to our son Liam, a toddler at the time this piece was written) and so much more.

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