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45 Fam. L.Q. 271 (2011-2012)
Alimony Theory

handle is hein.journals/famlq45 and id is 283 raw text is: Alimony Theory CYNTHIA LEE STARNES* I. Introduction Why should anyone be forced to share income with a former spouse? If divorce severs the tie between spouses, if each spouse is entitled to a clean break and a fresh start as no-fault laws teach, what is the rationale for alimony? Surprisingly, family law offers no answers to these ques- tions. For over thirty years, commentators have struggled to explain why alimony has survived the demise of coverture and the advent of no-fault divorce, but there is still no consensus on a contemporary rationale for alimony. In extreme cases, the pragmatic justification for alimony is easy enough: alimony protects the state from the job of supporting a divorced spouse who, without alimony, would be thrust into poverty. Indeed, state statutes typically identify a claimant's need as an alimony trigger. But trial courts are given broad discretion to define need and state-interest does not explain cases in which alimony is awarded to a divorcing spouse who faces a decline in standard of living short of poverty. Nor does prag- matism answer the many questions to which alimony demands answers: How much? How long? To what end? On what grounds-modification or termination? The broad discretion vested in judges to determine alimony eligibility and quantification, together with the absence of a theory to guide decision- making, has produced an alimony regime that is marked by unpredictabil- ity, uncertainty, and confusion. The only thing that is predictable about alimony is that it is unlikely to be awarded, a fact that is not surprising in a culture that tends to applaud self-reliance and disdain dependency. Some legal actors have responded to the dysfunction of current alimony law by endorsing alimony guidelines. While guidelines can increase predictabili- * Professor of Law and John F. Schaefer Chair of Matrimonial Law, Michigan State University College of Law. 271

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