"Marriage and Divorce in a Multicultural Context"

I cannot remember if others have mentioned it here at MOJ, but I recently received a copy of Joel Nichols' (St. Thomas) really engaging edited volume called Marriage and Divorce in a Multicultural Context:  Multi-Tiered Marriage and the Boundaries of Civil Law and Religion.  Check it out.  The various chapters will be of interest, I'm sure, to Catholic Legal Theory types, dealing as they do will all kinds of family-, subsidiarity-, pluralism-, and legal-moralism-related questions.

Here is my back-cover blurb:

"The institution of marriage is ancient and everywhere; it is also increasingly vulnerable and contested. It involves relationships that are intimate and private; at the same time, it makes contributions and has consequences that are social and public. It is both a sacrament and a state-action; it is both prior to, and pervasively structured by, the law. Responding to these facts and tensions, this engaging collection of interdisciplinary essays by a diverse array of legal scholars explores carefully the provocative possibility that marriage can and should be dealt with in different ways, in different communities, by plural authorities. They ask whether it is possible, justifiable, and desirable to separate marriage's private and religious dimensions from the coverage and concern of the state's power, and call our attention to both the attractions, and the dangers, of such a move."

- Richard W. Garnett
Professor of Law and Associate Dean, Notre Dame Law School