[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-1-en-105":3,"doc-detail-282826-en":53,"doc-seo-282826-105":76},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,14,19,24,29,34,39,44,49],{"id":8,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":11,"show_sort_weight":12,"slug":13},11,1,"Template","Presentations",90,"presentations",{"id":15,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":16,"show_sort_weight":17,"slug":18},12,"Resumes",80,"resumes",{"id":20,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":21,"show_sort_weight":22,"slug":23},14,"Invoices",70,"invoices",{"id":25,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":26,"show_sort_weight":27,"slug":28},15,"Posters",60,"posters",{"id":30,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":31,"show_sort_weight":32,"slug":33},16,"Social Media",50,"social-media",{"id":35,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":36,"show_sort_weight":37,"slug":38},17,"Forms",40,"forms",{"id":40,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":41,"show_sort_weight":42,"slug":43},18,"Letters",30,"letters",{"id":45,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":46,"show_sort_weight":47,"slug":48},21,"Paper Templates",5,"papers-templates",{"id":50,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":51,"show_sort_weight":4,"slug":52},158,"General","general-158",{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":54},{"doc_id":55,"user_id":56,"nickname":57,"user_avatar":58,"doc_module":9,"category_id":50,"category_name":51,"doc_title":59,"doc_description":60,"doc_content":61,"file_id":62,"file_url":63,"file_type":64,"file_size":65,"view_count":66,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":9,"is_downloadable":9,"audit_status":9,"page_count":67,"language":68,"language_code":69,"site_id":70,"html_lang":69,"table_of_contents":71,"faqs":72,"seo_title":73,"seo_description":60,"update_tm":74,"read_time":75},282826,5909892115043,"Bulrr","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","FROM CONTRACT TO STATUS - COLLABORATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF NOVEL FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS","Public attitudes and legal status for same-sex couples seeking marriage have shifted substantially, reshaping how the law conceives family. The article examines whether other relationship forms—cohabiting couples with children, voluntary kin groups, multigenerational groups, and polygamists—could receive legal recognition under state welfare criteria requiring long-term mutual care and interdependence. It develops an informal model of the uncertainties facing aspiring families and proposes collaborative techniques to build trust and confidence. Using a hypothetical polyamorous group, it illustrates how an evolutionary collaboration process can convert contract-like arrangements into status recognition.","FROM CONTRACT TO STATUS: COLLABORATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF NOVEL FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS†  \nElizabeth S. Scott * & Robert E. Scott **  \nThe past decade has witnessed dramatic changes in public attitudes about and legal status for same-sex couples who wish to marry. These changes demonstrate that the legal conception of the family is no longer limited to traditional marriage. They also raise the possibility that other relationships—cohabiting couples and their children, voluntary kin groups, multigenerational groups, and polygamists—might gain legal recognition as families. This Article probes the challenges faced by aspiring families and the means by which they could attain their goal. It builds on the premise that the state remains committed to social-welfare criteria for granting family status, recognizing as families only those categories of relationships that embody a long-term commitment to mutual care and interdependence and, on that basis, function well to satisfy members’ dependency needs. Groups aspiring to legal recognition as families must overcome substantial uncertainties as to whether they meet these criteria if they are to obtain the rights and obligations of legally recognized families. Uncertainty contributes to a lack of confidence in the durability and effectiveness of their relationships on the part of the aspiring family members themselves, the larger social community, and, ultimately, the state. The Article develops an informal model to illustrate the nature of these uncertainties, as well asthe solutions to the possible obstacles they create. Using a hypothetical group consisting of two adult men and two adult women in a polyamorous relationship, we show how legal status for family groups can result from an evolutionary process for overcoming uncertainties that uses collaborative techniques to build trust and confidence. Collabora-  \n† The title draws on (and challenges) Henry Maine’s famous statement that “the movement of the progressive societies has . . . been a movement from Status to Contract.”Henry Sumner Maine, Ancient Law 170 (Transaction Publishers 2002) (1866) (emphasis omitted); see Brian H. Bix, Private Ordering in Family Law, 23 J. Am. Acad. Matrimonial Law. 249, 259 n.30 (2010) (discussing domestic-relations context of Maine’s statement) .  \n* Harold R. Medina Professor of Law, Columbia Law School.  \n** Alfred McCormack Professor of Law, Columbia Law School. For helpful comments on earlier drafts, we thank Erez Aloni, Brian Bix, Peg Brinig, Hanoch Dagan, Max Eichner, Liz Emens, Katherine Franke, Ron Gilson, Bert Huang, Clare Huntington, Shahar Lifschitz, Suzanne Kim, Doug NeJaime, Chuck Sabel, George Triantis, and participants at faculty workshops at William and Mary and Columbia law schools. For outstanding research assistance, we are grateful to Grace Davis, John Knight, Gatsby Miller, and Sarah Sloan. For financial support, we thank the Marc and Eva Stern Faculty Research Fund.  \n294 COLUMBIA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 115:293  \ntive processes have been shown in other settings to be effective mechanisms for creating trust incrementally and thus appear to offer a way forward for novel families. The Article describes how the successful movement to achieve marriage rights for LGBT couples has roughly conformed to the collaborative processes we propose, and it identifies the absence of meaningful collaboration as one factor explaining the stasis that characterizes the status of unmarried cohabitants. This evidence supports the prediction that the future progress of other aspiring family groups toward attaining legal status may depend on how well they are able to engage the collaborative mechanisms that smooth the path from contract to status.  \nINTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 295  \nI. MARRIAGE AND THE SPECIAL LEGAL STATUS OF FAMILIES................... 301  \nA. Family Change and the Evolution of Social Attitudes ............... 302  \nB. ","cbCail3qERStQnJr","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCail3qERStQnJr","pdf",687489,4,82,"English","en",105,"# INTRODUCTION\n# I. MARRIAGE AND THE SPECIAL LEGAL STATUS OF FAMILIES\n## A. Family Change and the Evolution of Social Attitudes\n## B. The Qualities of Well-Functioning Families\n## C. Marriage as an Enduring Family Form\n## D. Extending State Benefits to Other Families\n# II. A COLLABORATIVE MODEL OF THE EVOLUTION OF NOVEL FAMILY FORMS\n## A. Conditions Impeding the Legal Recognition of Novel Family Relationships\n## B. The Evolution Toward Legal Recognition Through Collaboration","[{\"question\":\"What legal shift does the article highlight regarding family status?\",\"answer\":\"It highlights dramatic changes in public attitudes and the legal status of same-sex couples, showing that the legal conception of the family is not limited to traditional marriage.\"},{\"question\":\"What criteria does the state use to grant family status in the article’s framework?\",\"answer\":\"The article assumes the state remains committed to social-welfare criteria, recognizing as families only relationship categories embodying long-term mutual care and interdependence that satisfy members’ dependency needs.\"},{\"question\":\"How does collaboration help aspiring “novel families” obtain legal recognition?\",\"answer\":\"The article argues that uncertainty can undermine confidence and acceptance, and it proposes an informal model where collaborative techniques incrementally build trust and confidence, smoothing the path from contract to status.\"}]","FROM CONTRACT TO STATUS - COLLABORATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF NOVEL FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS | PDF",1789583194,29,{"code":4,"msg":77,"data":78},"ok",{"site_id":70,"language":69,"slug":79,"title":59,"keywords":80,"description":60,"schema_data":81,"social_meta":136,"head_meta":138,"extra_data":140,"updated_unix":141},"from-contract-to-status-collaboration-and-the-evolution-of-novel-family-relationships","",{"@graph":82,"@context":135},[83,98,118],{"@type":84,"itemListElement":85},"BreadcrumbList",[86,90,93,96],{"item":87,"name":88,"@type":89,"position":9},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":91,"name":10,"@type":89,"position":92},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/",2,{"item":94,"name":51,"@type":89,"position":95},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/general/",3,{"item":97,"name":59,"@type":89,"position":66},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/from-contract-to-status-collaboration-and-the-evolution-of-novel-family-relationships/282826/",{"url":97,"name":59,"@type":99,"image":100,"author":105,"headline":59,"publisher":107,"fileFormat":110,"inLanguage":69,"description":60,"dateModified":111,"datePublished":112,"encodingFormat":110,"isAccessibleForFree":113,"interactionStatistic":114},"DigitalDocument",{"url":101,"@type":102,"width":103,"height":104},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/from-contract-to-status-collaboration-and-the-evolution-of-novel-family-relationships/282826.png","ImageObject",442,249,{"name":57,"@type":106},"Person",{"url":87,"name":108,"@type":109},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-22","2026-09-16",true,{"@type":115,"interactionType":116,"userInteractionCount":95},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":117},"ViewAction",{"@type":119,"mainEntity":120},"FAQPage",[121,127,131],{"name":122,"@type":123,"acceptedAnswer":124},"What legal shift does the article highlight regarding family status?","Question",{"text":125,"@type":126},"It highlights dramatic changes in public attitudes and the legal status of same-sex couples, showing that the legal conception of the family is not limited to traditional marriage.","Answer",{"name":128,"@type":123,"acceptedAnswer":129},"What criteria does the state use to grant family status in the article’s framework?",{"text":130,"@type":126},"The article assumes the state remains committed to social-welfare criteria, recognizing as families only relationship categories embodying long-term mutual care and interdependence that satisfy members’ dependency needs.",{"name":132,"@type":123,"acceptedAnswer":133},"How does collaboration help aspiring “novel families” obtain legal recognition?",{"text":134,"@type":126},"The article argues that uncertainty can undermine confidence and acceptance, and it proposes an informal model where collaborative techniques incrementally build trust and confidence, smoothing the path from contract to status.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":97,"og:type":137,"og:title":59,"og:site_name":108,"og:description":60},"article",{"robots":139,"canonical":97},"index,follow",{"doc_id":55,"site_id":70},1790007340]