This way of thinking is reaching out beyond the academy, increasingly influencing family law in the United States and Canada. The American Law Institute recently did just that, reports Cere, proposing model legislation that offers many of the benefits of marriage to couples who live together. In short, the experts' story of courtship both reflects and reinforces some of the more distressing trends in contemporary culture. Because they focus on individuals and their choices, all three schools of courtship ignore the social and institutional dimensions of marriage, which is not just a lifestyle, but a universal human institution connecting mothers, fathers and children in a close family, not just personal, bond. Love is more than a style.
Courtship is more than coupling.