Unconditional Love, Some Implications for the Law†

Love is a rich topic for recent moral philosophers, theologians, writers and social justice activists. Yet, normative concepts of love embedded in modern law are seldom closely examined by legal theorists. This article is the first to illustrate that the concept of unconditional love plays significant roles across diverse areas of the positive law. Relying on a stipulated ethical understanding of unconditional love as a durable, constant, loyal, faithful, generous and self-sacrificing love, I demonstrate that, for better or worse, law can serve unconditional love’s paramount demands. Significant categories of contemporary legal regulation are explicable to the communities bound by them because the evocative notion that some familial love is and ought to be ‘unconditional’ is socially pervasive. I do not advocate for the problematic concept of unconditional love but demonstrate that the law embeds it in two ways. One way is by affording opportunities for individuals voluntarily to exercise the felt imperatives of unconditional love (eg through prison visitation rights and spousal testimonial privileges). The other is by imposing duties of unconditional love that may run strongly counter to individuals’ choices and preferences (eg by restricting access to safe abortion and requiring parental support of adult children). I suggest that derelict and gender-biased governments may shun their own social welfare responsibilities by imposing on private individuals caregiving duties that bespeak unconditional love. Attention to the powerful unconditional love concepts embedded throughout the law can foster an improved understanding of the norms and politics of marriage and family governance.