Equality Practice: Civil Unions and the Future of Gay Rights

"Equality Practice has the potnetial to move the discussion of same-sex marriage rights where it needs to go...when it does, Eskridge will have earned a place in the history of the greatest civil rights victory since 1964. Eskridge's book...has much to teach us about both the principles and the logistics of civil rights in the 21st century."
The Gay & Lesbian Review July/August 2002."
"Eskridge's Equality Practice is a truly excellent book--informative, well written, and broad in scope and inquiry while maintaining a clear argument. It nicely integrates global, historical, and contemporary legal and political perspectives. It is hard to imagine the person who would not learn anything from reading it."
The Law and Politics Book Review/July 2002."
"The most compelling and original analysis to date of the social meaning and politics of gay marriage. This book is, quite simply, the place to begin and return to as many of us try to understand and formulate a response to debates about gay marriage. A tour de force of scholarship and political reasonableness on a subject that divides virtually all Americans."
--Steven Seidman, Professor of Sociology, SUNY Albany."
"This lucid, literate and absorbing book guides readers through the conflict of communitarian and liberal ideals as they clash over the issues raised by same-sex unions, marriage and domestic life. Eskridge does a remarkable job presenting dense legal, ethical, political and religious arguments in a lively and thoroughly engaging manner. Equality Practice is an essential book, immensely relevant and thought provoking."
--Urvashi Vaid, author of Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation.."
"A rigorous, spirited, and ingenious defense of Vermont's novel civil union law."
-Robin West, Professor of Law, Georgetown University."
"A wonderful combination of social history, acute legal analysis, and powerful normative argument. His explanatory account-showing how liberal rights claims are and should be reconciled with communitarian values-is refreshingly original. He shows in the best way one can-by presenting a richly textured interpretive history-how these deep seated strands of our liberal democratic live are harmonized."
--John Ferejohn, Carolyn S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science, Stanford University."
"A rigorous, spirited, and ingenious defense of Vermont's novel civil union law."
-Robin West, Professor of Law, Georgetown University."
"Eskridge's communitarian approach is the only one I know that's capable of overcoming the objection that same-sex marriage would open the floodgates to relationships involving polygamy, incest, animals, and so on." -- The Gay and Lesbian Review.
"...Eskridge's Equality Practice is a truly excellent book-informative, well written, and broad in scope and inquiry while maintaining a clear argument. It nicely integrates global,historical and contemporary legal and political perspectives. It is hard to imagine the person who would not learn from reading it." -- The Law and Politics Book Review June 2002.
"Eskridge provides a thoroughly detailed history of same-sex marriages and civil unions in the US...does a phenomenal job of reiterating central themes throughout the book...All academic collections." -- K.M. Jamieson, Ashland University, for CHOICE

William Eskridge, Jr. wrote the landmark book, The Case for Same Sex Marriage (Free Press, 1996). He is the John A. Garver Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School and has published widely both in academic law journals and in the popular press.

Prologue and Acknowledgments 1. Same-Sex Marriage and the Politics of Sexuality 2. The Vermont Civil Unions Law 3. Comparative Law Lessons for the Same-Sex Marriage Movement 4. Civil Unions and Liberal Jurisprudence: Equality Practice 5. Equality Practice and the Civic Republic 6. Equality Practice as a Postmodern Cultural Form Epilogue