What is marriage?

  • Sherif Girgis Princeton University (United States)
  • Robert P. George Princeton University (United States)
  • Ryan T. Anderson Princeton University (United States)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31207/ih.v9i1.226
Keywords: Same Sex Marriage, Heterosexual Marriage, Notion of Marriage, Family Protection, Sex Orientation Discrimination

Abstract

Here is studied mainly what marriage is. By the way, the analysis shows how this debate has profound consequences in the common good and how its protection should be regulated. With a systematically method, authors review the most important opinions about marriage, for and against the usual notion, and then they weigh their consistency. The analysis is divided into two parts. In the first one is defined the notion of the authentic marriage and the consequences that it has on the common good (consequences that justify the State’s actions in this matter). There are analyzed all kinds of romantic unions, monogamous or not, taking care of the public interest that they can present. Part II considers all of the serious concerns that are not treated earlier: the objections from conservatism (Why not spread traditional norms to the gay community?), from practicality (What about partners’ concrete needs?), from fairness (Doesn’t the conjugal conception of marriage sacrifice some people’s fulfillment for others’?), from naturalness (Isn’t it only natural?), and from neutrality (Doesnʹt traditional marriage law impose controversial moral and religious views on everyone?). The main conclusion is that marriage understood as the conjugal union of man and woman really serves for the good of the children, the good of the spouses, and the common good of the society; these benefits do not occur in the same way in same sex marriage.

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Author Biographies

Sherif Girgis, Princeton University (United States)

Doctor en Filosofía (c) por la Universidad de Princeton (Estados Unidos de Norteamérica). Research Scholar del Witherspoon Institute.

Robert P. George, Princeton University (United States)

Robert P. George es profesor de jurisprudencia la cátedra McCormick y Director del "James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions" en Princeton University (Estados Unidos). Profesor visitante de Harvard Law School.

Se ha desempeñado como presidente de la Comisión de los Estados Unidos sobre Libertad Religiosa Internacional. También ha servido en el Consejo de Bioética del Presidente, como candidato presidencial a la Comisión de Derechos Civiles de los Estados Unidos y como miembro estadounidense de la Comisión Mundial de Ética de la Ciencia y Tecnología de la UNESCO. Es un antiguo Judicial Fellosw de la Corte Suprema de los Estados Unidos, donde recibió el Premio de Justicia Tom C. Clark.

Además es miembro de las juntas directivas de John M. Templeton Foundation Religion Trust, de Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, de Ethics and Public Policy Center, de Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, de National Center on Sexual Exploitation, y del Center for Individual Rights, among others.

Autor de las obras: Making Men Moral:  Civil Liberties and Public Morality (Oxford University Press, 1993), In Defense of Natural Law (Oxford University Press, 1999), The Clash of Orthodoxies (ISI, 2001) y Conscience and Its Enemies (ISI, 2013). Es coautor de Conjugal Union: What Marriage Is (Cambridge University Press, 2014), Embryo: A Defense of Human Life (2nd edition, Doubleday, 2011), Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2008), and What is Marriage? (Encounter, 2012). Editor de muchas más obras.

Ryan T. Anderson, Princeton University (United States)

Doctor en Ciencia Política (c) por la Universidad de Notre Dame (Estados Unidos). William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow en American Principles & Public Policy.

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Published
2020-02-23
How to Cite
Girgis, S., George, R., & Anderson, R. (2020). What is marriage?. Ius Humani. Law Journal, 9(1), 87-137. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.31207/ih.v9i1.226
Issue
Vol 9 No 1 (2020): Ius Humani. Law Journal
Section
Papers
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