Does France have 7-year marriage contracts?

[Cunctator]

@Lemur866

But whats the difference between a renewable seven-year marriage contract and an open-ended contract that can be ended by either party for any reason?

I’d say that the difference lies in how the marriage contracts end. Under no-fault divorce, the marriage continues until one or both parties take active steps to secure a dissolution of the marriage. The seven year marriage contract would presumably automatically come to an end after seven years unless the spouses both agreed to renew.

[Shagnasty]

@Cunctator

I’d say that the difference lies in how the marriage contracts end. Under no-fault divorce, the marriage continues until one or both parties take active steps to secure a dissolution of the marriage. The seven year marriage contract would presumably automatically come to an end after seven years unless the spouses both agreed to renew.

That’s great if you are a care-free couple with no real assets or minor children. You can just choose not to renew and walk away blissfully announcing that fact to family and friends. However, if you have a house, other assets, and children, all a marriage contract will do is make you consider divorce every seven years. If you decide to get out, the divorce proceedings would need to be nearly the same because there are a lot of legal and financial things to work out. There is no way around that. I don’t see the point.

[madmonk28]

The seven year contract idea is also used in the novel “The Memory of Earth” written by fellow Mormon Orson Card which is about Mormons in space.

Here’s a link

[The_Scrivener]

Not to mention The Seven-Year Itch, with Marilyn Monroe.

[Nava]

@Cunctator

I’d say that the difference lies in how the marriage contracts end. Under no-fault divorce, the marriage continues until one or both parties take active steps to secure a dissolution of the marriage. The seven year marriage contract would presumably automatically come to an end after seven years unless the spouses both agreed to renew.

Not necessarily, in Spanish renter’s law, the initial contract is for one year but it gets renewed automatically for the next year (for a maximum of five total) without a renegotiation of conditions at the end of that first year. The law indicates that the owner can raise rent “by the official amount of the cost of life rise” at each automatic renewal; the owner must send a letter to the renter indicating the new price, the new price is considered accepted when the renter writes back or pays it for the first time.

The conditions necessary to end the contract during the first year are somewhat harder than for subsequent years (3 months’ warning, later 30 days, for example), but the renewal is automatic.

[even_sven]

Here in Cameroon, this is a common belief about Americans. I’ve been told several times that in America you make a contract to be married for a certain amount of time and then that’s it. I’ve been asked how long I personally plan to be married for.

Maybe this legend has a common origin (France is very much on people’s minds here, and the difference between France and America can be kind of hazy).