The Necessity of a Marriage License

Jenna Haedike
Professor Webster
English 121
November 7, 2013

In the United States, when a couple decides to marry, there are many different ways a couple can choose to pursue their union. While some may choose to unite through holy matrimony and others may choose the secular route of marriage by a justice of the peace, documentation of said marriage, while elective, is an important legal step in sanctifying a union in the eyes of any governing body. In effect, obtaining a marriage license is far and away more beneficial than simply remaining married under common or religious law. The greater goal of any marriage is, in retrospect, is relatively noble. One individual marries another in order to foster a child or children with their significant other, to produce a family. There are many benefits to this, physical, psychological and economical. The economic benefits of obtaining a marriage license are the extended provisions afforded the newly-wed couple when it comes to combination of assets; when a marriage takes place, under the law, both persons involved yield their individual right to any and all of their assets. This means that your potential husband’s debt is now yours, your potential wife’s income now compliments your own and any purchases you make, financial agreements you sign or children you conceive are given equal parts ownership between the two of you. This is imposed by the terms of the marriage license, and is not something that would be anywhere near as widely practiced if not for said imposition of the law, specifically because it means sharing your property and assets, liquid or not, with another person, indefinitely. While this may seem like something that would be a foregone conclusion when two individuals decide to share their lives together, imagine what it would take to not go back on these