Bentham, Law and Marriage - A Utilitarian Code of Law in Historical Contexts

Jeremy Bentham's law of marriage is firmly based on the principle of utility, which claims that all human actions are governed by a wish to gain pleasure and avoid pain, and on the proposition that men and women are equal. He wrote in a late eighteenth century context of Enlightenment debate about marriage and the family. As such his contemporaries were Hume, Locke and Milton; Wollstonecraft and More. These were the turbulent years leading to the French Revolution and it is in this milieu that Mary Sokol seeks to rediscover the historical Bentham. Instead of regarding his thought as timeless, she considers Bentham's attitude to the reform of marriage law and plans for the social reform of marriage, placing both his life and work in the philosophical and historical context of his time.Table of ContentIntroduction; 1. Sex and utility; 2. Forming a marriage: 'Between what persons?'; 3. Legal status within a marriage: 'What are its conditions?'; 4. Jeremy Bentham's adultery code; 5. Divorce: 'For how long?'; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.Biographical NoteMary Sokol is Honorary Research Fellow with The Bentham Project at University College London, UK. She is a qualified lawyer and the co-author of Shakespeare, Law and Marriage (CUP).Sokol places Bentham in his historical context, locating his thought within the late eighteenth-century debates on legal, political, philosophical and literary considerations of marriage.Analyses previously unknown Bentham manuscripts.Locates Bentham's work within Enlightenment debates on marriage and the family.Provides an analysis of manuscript material on late eighteenth-century marriage, divorce and family life.