Newdood wrote:I have to agree with Mimailia - an interesting read.
I didn't know that marriage was such a small thing in Europe, but the article didn't scratch the surface of just how BIG it is in the States. In fact, there is a fairly big federal tax deduction in the States that is only available to married couples.
Note: I express my personal views and opinions here. Some of the numbers I have googled and may be out of date.
Well, yes and no. Marriage does not have the same socio-political impact that it seems to have in the States. For example a good personal friend of mine still lives together with his girlfriend and already has one son and they are thinking about another child. They have been living together for more than seven years now and are still not married or even engaged. Nobody I know (or care about) is really bothered about that.
But... once you enter a marriage and live the wedded life you tend to stick to your wife/husband much longer and divorce is not an easy topic for many couples (at least in Germany). Marriage is seen as important to those who actually do enter it. Therefore it is a bit difficult to explain the emotional (and even logical) connections people have towards marriage. Although divorce rates are rising in Germany (currently appr. 30-35% of marriages are being divorced) it usually takes at least 5-6 years before couples even think about a divorce. Quick divorces (such as after a year or so) are very rare and looked upon as a bit frivolous. Usually couples tend to stick around longer to try to work out their differences before actually divorcing.
Tax deductions are still a reason for marriage in Germany but currently a law is being discussed quite controversially in our parliament whether to change this state to all relationships similar in state to marriage (even including long-standing homo-sexual partnerships) - including the tax deductions.
For the lawsuits: yes, the coffee lawsuit is true but many other so-called 'officially reported lawsuits' from the States are urban myths. Yet still in Europe you would never get such a lawsuit to stick. The judge would probably laugh at you and ask you to use your brains before sticking a cup of hot coffee between your legs while driving. Maybe he would even charge you for irresponsible behavior while driving and endangerment of others for your stupidity (not really, but it would probably cross the judge's mind).
There is also a fundamental difference in the US law system and several European law systems. In the US you have a so-called 'case law'. A judge and the lawyers have to check all the previous similar cases and have to see whether a similar case has already been judged. This then leads to the application of the previous cases to the current case. Yes, this is a gross simplification.
Many European countries use a civil law system where you first have to have a law passed by parliament before someone can be punished for a transgression against said law. Without a law - no transgression. It is not possible to date back a transgression before a law was officially passed. Once someone has committed something which could be constituted as a breach of good taste or even a 'self-evident' law for which no civil law exists, parliaments will usually quickly try to rectify this situation.
Therefore the parliaments in Europe have to constantly check their law systems for new developements (see the problems of internet security, international privacy via internet spying, etc.). This can lead to some difficulties with new crimes which have not been thought about previously.
'Case law' is virtually unknown in Germany and always causes frowns when some of the more extreme cases from the States raise their ugly heads. That's the reason why (at least in Germany) laws are always written in such convoluted terms so that they can be applied and adapted to many cases with having to pass new laws.
Please note again that I often use terms such as 'usually', 'tend' and so forth.