Betwixt and Between Recognition: Migrating Same-Sex Marriages and the Turn Toward the Private

Cossman talks about the battery of arguments at work in doctrinal debates about the recognition of gay and lesbian marriages alongside other images of these migrating marriages in television and film and in wedding announcements in the New York Times. At a most basic level, this cultural analysis reminds people that doctrinal efforts to abstract from the substance of disputes aside, substance and, in particular, cultural and political context continue to matter in ways that are often both crucial and unappreciated in the discipline. Moreover, she shows how the intricate moves of recognition and deference that characterize technical doctrinal maneuvering in the conflict of laws are actually consequential for the political substance of debates.