law and the family

     The actual foundation of all law, including marriage laws, is the welfare, peace, and security of the citizens of a state or nation. Laws are meant to prevent feuds, duels, and violent forms of retribution. Laws protect people's bodies. Laws protect people's property. Laws protect people's reputations. Laws protect people's inventions. Laws protect people's homes. Laws protect people's privacy. And laws protect people's families. Families have special inheritance rights, some of which would override or render null and void the provisions of a will that are contrary to these rights. Families--husbands and wives--have the right to refuse to testify against one another. one spouse can't be held in contempt of court for refusing to answer questions about the other. Married couples have special rights in their children. For example, a child born to the married couple is legally theirs. No on can sue, claiming to be the father of a married woman's child. The law doesn't enter into marriages in this way. The law, in general, subscribes to the notion that the family is the building block of society, meaning peaceful and industrious coexistence. The law, in most cases, errs on the side of refusing to interfere in family or domestic matters. In this way the law attempts to uphold the family unit, which is presumed to uphold society, which is both the creator of the law, and protected by the law. Everyone is presumed to benefit through this arrangement.