Marital Agreements and Private Autonomy in the United States

This essay is a draft of a chapter that will appear in Marital Agreements and Private Autonomy in a Comparative Perspective. It provides a critical overview of the current American law on the enforceability of premarital and marital agreements in the United States. The book as a whole will provide such an overview for a selection of countries in Europe and elsewhere. Each chapter also describes the default rules that apply in the absence of an agreement.

Keywords: premarital agreement, antenuptial agreement, marriage, divorce

JEL Classification: J12, K39

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Ellman, Ira Mark, Marital Agreements and Private Autonomy in the United States (August 26, 2009). MARITAL AGREEMENTS AND PRIVATE AUTONOMY IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE, Jens M. Scherpe, ed., 2010, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1514062 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1514062

Ira Mark Ellman (Contact Author)

Center for the Study of Law and Society, Berkeley Law, University of California, Berkeley ( email )

Berkeley, CA 94720-2150
United States

Arizona State University College of Law ( email )

Box 877906
Phoenix, AZ
United States

Arizona State University (ASU) - Department of Psychology ( email )

950 S. McAllister Ave
P. O. Box 871104
Tempe, AZ 85287-1104
United States