英文重组家庭针对关系解体的建设性信任.pdf

Reconstructing Family: Constructive Trust at Relational Dissolution Laura Weinrib? [D]ivorce law seems in danger of forgetting both the rhetoric and the remedies for addressing good and bad marital conduct and abuses of trust in intimate relationships.1 —Barbara Bennett Woodhouse Introduction: Deconstructive Trust Intimate relationships are, arst and foremost, relationships of trust. Family building demands the surrender of individual autonomy in favor of mutual reliance and care. It may nevertheless be unsurprising, in a so- ciety that celebrates self-interest and downplays community accountabil- ity, that family law reform efforts in recent years have largely neglected the emotional consequences of long-term cohabitation for the individuals involved. With all the talk of valuing women’s housework, moving be- yond the patriarchal institution of marriage, and recognizing the legiti- macy of privately ordered lesbian and gay partnerships, the human ele- ments of family are often left by the wayside. Given the dominant conception of family as an amalgamation of distinct individual interests, contract law has been the primary vehicle of restructuring the legal relationship between intimate partners.2 Contract is well suited to protecting partners’ autonomy, and its emphasis on vol- untary assumption of responsibilities has facilitated legal regulation of those families that fall outside the traditional boundaries of heterosexual marriages. The embrace of contract represents an important concession: ? B.A., Harvard College, 2000; M.A., Harvard University, 2000; J.D. Candidate, Har- vard Law School, 2003. Many thanks to Professor Elizabeth Bartholet for her thoughtful comments and advice over several drafts of this Article. I would also like to thank the edi- tors of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil