Conservatives propose to reduce marriage covenant to a contract – The BBC reports that it is emerging Conservative Party policy to make pre-nuptial agreements binding, as they are in many EU countries.

Previous recent related postLarge increase in couples signing prenuptial agreements – Lawyers are reporting a tenfold increase in couples signing prenuptial agreements before they tie the knot.From the excellent Cranmer BlogThe BBC reports that it is emerging Conservative Party policy to make pre-nuptial agreements binding, as they are in many EU countries. Henry Bellingham, the shadow justice minister, said: “We want to bring in a fairly wide-ranging divorce law reform bill and I’m very keen th

U.K. Parental Leave Policy Shortchanges Dads, Poor Mothers

Here's a new study on the British parental leave system ( BBC, 7/14/09). Unsurprisingly, it finds that the U.K.'s system of paid parental leave encourages women to stay at home with the kids and fathers to return to work following the birth of a child. Current leave policy provides mothers six months of paid leave, but fathers only two weeks. By the standards of continental Europe, that's generous toward women and parsimonious toward men. And of course it promotes traditional male/female