scotts@cmu.edu

The total article is 58 pages.  I can mail a few copies to some people.
First come, first serve.

To decide if you want a copy, I have typed in the introduction to the article

A More Perfect Union: A Legal and Social Analysis of Domestic
Partnership Ordinances

Vol. 92, No 5 June 1992 (gee, I was told it was 1993.  huh! guess Ed was wrong)

Craig A Bowman and Blake M Cornish

Introduction

The past three decades have seen an explosion in the number of committed
couples living together without the benefit of state-recognized
marriage.  These relationships have challenged traditional family law
and generated a number of novel legal issues, often between  the two
parties upon dissolution of their relationship or with other family
members upon the death or disability of a partner.  Other disputes
involve the couple's relationship with third parties, such as when
partners seek benefits traditionally accorded to married couples or when
a creditor seeks to hold both partners liable for one partner's debts.

The increasing number of nontraditional families has forced the
government at least to acknowledge the existence of these families.
Largely at the behest of gay-rights advocates, a number of
municipalities are creating domestic partnership ordinances, conferring
certain benefits on domestic partners that are within the authority of
the local government to grant.

This Note argues that domestic relations law has failed to keep pace
with social realities.  This failure to recognize and support
relationships other than traditional marriage has created substantial
uncertainty regarding the rights and obligations of individuals in
nontraditional relationships.  This lack of legally recognized
alternatives to marriage and the exclusion of lesbians and gay men from
marriage has left many couples unable to define their relationships as
they choose, and has lead to disparate and unfair treatment of similarly
situted couples.  Domestic partnership laws can help to mitigate the
existing defects in domestic relations law.

Part I of this Note examines the current regulation of domestic
relations.  Many couples find marriage to be inappropriate or
unavailable to them, but nonetheless need some state protection and
recognition of their relationship.  Current domestic relations law often
fails to account for and support growing numbers of domestic partners
and forces nontraditional couples to attempt to protect their
relationships by using creative, but often inadequet, legal devices.

Part II examines changes in marriage and family law in order to discern
the state and individual interests that should be served by domestic
relations law.  The analysis suggests that new institutions might
further those interests that are not well served by the current legal
framework. 

Several American cities have passed or proposed domestic partnership
ordinances in an attempt to fill the gaps in domestic relations law and
recognize these relationships.  Part III analyzes these ordinances.
Existing ordinances are early steps in creating a new institution that
will recognize and validate committed nonmarital relationships.

Part IV builds on and refines existing domestic partnership ordinances
at the municipal level in an attempt to develop a structure that more
fully reflects the needs of many modern relationships and thus better
meets state interests in domestic relations.  To this end, the Part
proposes model language for a more comprehensive domestic partnership
ordinance.