Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: We assess the relative importance of pre-divorce contexts vs. post-divorce process and situation in altering the impact of divorce on mental health depression using the National Survey of Families and Households. Our essential question is whether pre-divorce context overwhelms the relevance of post-divorce situation (or vice-versa), or both operate independently. We find relatively independent impacts for pre and post-divorce factors on the mental health consequences of divorce, suggesting that all phases of the divorce process are important in predicting long-term mental health impacts.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Advocates and opponents of same-sex marriage have recently found themselves squabbling over the relationship between same-sex marriage and divorce. Drawing on emerging data from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, opponents of same-sex marriage have argued that all three countries experienced a rise in divorce rates since they began offering legal recognition to same-sex couples. Proponents of same-sex marriage have drawn on the same data to argue that anti-marriage advocates have it wrong; that divorce rates have declined since the three nations began to recognize same-sex relationships. I do not weigh in on the merits of the divorce dispute in this paper. Instead I question the validity of a premise that both sides of the dispute accept: divorce is bad. Divorce, I contend, is good. I use the experience of same-sex couples in the United States to illustrate my argument.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Do social institutions matter to family life or are they merely adornment to ineluctable social and economic forces? This paper extends recent American research cross-culturally by examining whether the introduction of unilateral no-fault divorce in Australia raised parental divorce risks. We use retrospective reports from the IsssA-Pool database of national surveys, 1984 - 2002 (N=19,601 for this analysis), and estimate the individual-level impact of the change via logistic regression. The key result is that individuals born in cohorts that finished their childhood after divorce law liberalization are about 40 percent more likely to have experienced parental divorce, net of many other social and economic changes. Control variables have their usual effects.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Drawing on observations of recent arbitration sessions (tahkīm) I consider the strategies employed by court officials to conclude claims for judicial divorce in Damascus under articles 112-115 of Syrian personal status law No. 34 (1953).

The legal process itself is clearly defined by the statute and is usually described by the arbitrators as consisting of four phases: (1) an attempt to bring about reconciliation between the spouses; (2) a frank discussion of their marital problems; (3) a decision on whether divorce should be granted; and (4) an attribution of blame for the breakdown of the marriage reflected in what portion of the wife’s dower (mahr) the husband must pay. The law therefore mandates arbitrators to try to mediate reconciliation between the spouses, and failing that are empowered to arbitrate regarding the claim for judicial divorce.

In practice the arbitration process rarely evolves in such a predictable way. Arbitrators employ both mediation and arbitration strategies throughout the course of the legal process as they try to forge a sustainable resolution. Although reconciliation (sulh) between the spouses is the preferred resolution to these cases, they can also be concluded in a legal verdict issued by the court’s arbitrators (muhakamīn), mutual agreement by which a husband agrees to divorce his wife in return for some payment (mukhāla‘a) or a ‘no fault’ divorce based on the wife’s voluntary surrender of some or all of her financial entitlements.

I will argue that arbitrators are pragmatic in their employment of mediation and arbitration techniques towards bringing cases to a legally framed conclusion.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The combined findings from various sources of data suggest that that the recent concern on divorce surge in Korea may not be well grounded. The ratio of the numbers of divorces to married couples indicates that Korea ranks far below most European, North American and Oceanic countries compared. The causes of divorce, however, are similar to those found in the US. Becker’s economic theory of divorce that incorporates uncertainty into the utility maximization well explains divorce in Korea, as it does in the US. The only noticeable finding in Korea is that conditional divorce rates are higher in middle duration, not in early duration as predicted by Becker’s theory. This may reflect structural problems of the Korean society, unemployment and health deterioration of middle-age men, or transitional problems of the cohorts of current middle ages. Either way, if the decreasing trend of divorce in early marital duration reflects a reality, up-surge of divorce rates may slow down in the coming years.