Present at the creation

Neither state, nor church, nor individuals can change what marriage is | Gene Edward Veith

In the wrangles over gay marriage, some conservatives are proposing a simple solution: Have the government just get out of the marriage business.

Small-government conservatives are saying, Why not just let people have any marital relationship they want? What business does the government have regulating marriage? Christian conservatives are saying, Let the secular world throw out or redefine marriage if it wants, we'll keep marriage as a distinctly Christian institution.

Colin A.P. Jones, an American attorney and professor at a Japanese law school, offers a "free market solution." Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, he argues for the need to break up the "government monopoly" on marriage. Instead of one set of marriage laws that apply to everyone, he proposes using the model of corporation law. Marriage would become the formation of a corporate partnership.