The Institution of Marriage

[Nasor]

Marriage as a ceremony would then have to be supplanted by civil union as a contract. Basically, the equivalent of having a prenuptial agreement without the nuptials.

Many people argue that prenuptial agreements should be legally required anyway. Most people don't really object to the idea of having one, it's just that neither spouse wants to be the one to suggest it.

That, or you could have some sort of default prenuptial agreement that's automatically put into effect if the couple doesn't come up with one of their own.

In this era when (in America) the average marriage only lasts fifteen years, it's kind of idiotic to have absolutely no legal agreement in place to guide the termination.

In general I agree, but you have to be careful about the whole "half of marriage ends in divorce" statistics. Only about 30% of people will ever divorce from their first marriage. The average values are dragged down by "serial divorcers" who get re-married and re-divorced several times. Statistically speaking, your first marriage will probably work - but if it doesn't it's unlikely that you will ever have a marriage work, because the odds of getting a divorce go up dramatically for second marriages.