Economic justice in the oikos: Freedom and equality in family law

Abstract

This chapter considers two Canadian legal decisions about the effects upon unmarried conjugal partners when their relationship breaks down. In the absence of legislation, the courts compared married spouses’ bene fits to unmarried at breakdown in order to treat discrimination. The way of parsing discrimination is to determine whether human dignity is sought and achieved by provisions of the law. The two decisions hold that no discrimination and so no injustice arises from differences in bene fits. This holding is supported by the argument in this chapter that it makes sense to claim that drawing the distinction on the basis of marriage respects human dignity.