Prenuptial Agreements

Marielle Segarra, host of NPR's podcast Life Kit, interviews Theresa Viera, a lawyer specialised in prenuptial agreements -- legal contracts between soon-to-be spouses that lay out how they'll deal with money during a marriage and, if it happens, after a divorce. The interview can be found here. 20 min., transcript available.

Landmark Cases of the U.S. Supreme Court Explained

Heightened Scrutiny is a new podcast about the Supreme Court's landmark civil rights cases created by a self-described « attorney and professor who suffers from an incurable obsession with the Supreme Court and constitutional law. » The landmark cases featured so far are Roe v. Wade (abortion), Texas v. Johnson (flag burning and free speech), Loving v. Virginia (law forbidding marriage between blacks and whites), Kelo v. New London (eminent domain), Bowers v. Hardwick (anti-sodomy law), Lawrence v. Texas (anti-sodomy law), Employment Division v. Smith (peyote and religious freedom). 30 to 40 minutes, no transcript.

Loving Day

NPR's Morning Edition has a short report about Loving Day - a commemoration of a U.S. Supreme Court decision which held, on June 12, 1967, that a Virginia law forbidding interracial marriages was unconstitutional. The name of the case was Loving v. Virginia, Loving being the family name of the couple. 2 min 49 sec, transcript available.

Civil Marriage in Lebanon

NPR's All Things Considered of May 22 has a story about a couple who managed to be married civilly in Lebanon, a country with 18 different religions and sects. 4 min 26 sec, transcript available.

Polygamous Relationships

NPR's All Things Considered of Dec. 18 has a report about a decision by a Federal District Court judge concerning the validity of using prohibitions of 'cohabitation' to attack polygamous relationships. The law restricting marriage to only one wife at a time remains valid.
4 min, transcript available

Unreliable Evidence is Back

BBC Radio 4's Unreliable Evidence with Clive Anderson has begun a new series this week with a programme about the way the law treats cohabiting (unmarried) couples. Next week's programme is "How Free Is Our Speech?"
43 min, no transcript

Women and the law in 19th century Britain

On April 1, the BBC Radio 4 programme Witness talked about the absence of rights of married women in Britain over 175 years ago through the story of a society hostess, Caroline Norton, whose husband had stopped her from seeing her children and had accused her of having an affair with the Prime Minister of the day. 9 min, no transcript