E-Marriage and the Military

Professors Adam Candeub and Mae Kuykendall, in Modernizing Mar-riage, present a groundbreaking argument for “E-marriage” or electronic marriage as an alternative to traditional marriage practice, where both par-ties must be physically present within the state before a marriage becomes official. Under an E-marriage regime, a state would use today’s technology to make its marriage laws accessible to those outside of the state’s physical boundaries. These procedures could preserve some of the traditional ele-ments of a marriage ceremony (e.g. exchanging vows) by allowing couples to marry via videoconference or by creating an Internet virtual presence. The purpose of this essay is to present an argument as to why this kind of E-marriage regime would be particularly beneficial for American service members.