I think this would be a logistical nightmare

I can think of about ten situations where this would make things worse than they are now.

Let's start with three issues.

Every time you renewed your marriage contract it is a two party contract so it must be signed and notarized in front of witnesses to make sure there is no fraud, or coercion. How often do you want to do that?

If you made the renewal process easy, unintentional bigamy would jump way up as people mailed in cards for spouses that had decamped for parts unknown, or were drunk under a bridge somewhere in another state.

A couple of scenarios: You forget to renew your marriage contract, but you and your former spouse continue living together and have a kid.

Spouse is killed in a car wreck two weeks later. The house you and your child are living in, now belongs to former spouses nearest blood relative, who has always hated you.

You spend the next three years in court trying to prove a common law marriage, also that your former spouse was the parent of your child, and that half the house was yours anyway because you made payments on it.

Different scenario. Your marriage contract comes up for renewal. Spouse is critically injured in a car wreck, and lies in a coma.

You have been told that spouse is brain dead, and decide that it would be best to pull the plug. Contract expires 10 days after the accident and your brain dead spouse's mother is now in charge of her medical care.

She won't be realistic and let go so she demands that your former spouse remain on life support. Three months later you lose your house because you can't make the payments anymore without your spouses contribution. You were prudent, and took out mutual life insurance policies, but since your former spouse is technically still alive, you can't collect insurance or disability until she is taken off life support which her mother refuses to do.

Divorce, with no children is simple and easy in this country.
I just don't see how a short term renewable license makes anything easier.

Isab, I get your point, but to me it's no different from maintaining a will, or a business relationship (e.g., consulting). And lifetime marriage would still be an option for people who are willing to make the committment and don't want to worry about messing with the paperwork. I think the hardest part would be contingencies for unexpected events -- the obvious one being that, although a couple may not intend to have children, contraception isn't 100% effective.

How about, instead of literally redefining marriage, we just get government out of the marriage business.

How about we get the government totally out of it? Do away with all government law and policy that has to do with marriage whether pro or con and let it go to contract law of partnerships. Limit it to contract or religious status only.

Yeah, it would be great for attorneys.

I'm with elle, and RRoark...

We already treat it like a contract with religious trappings, and it it those trappings that make everything hard.
From the govt. perspective this would prolly simplify many things.
From the religious perspective, all religions now can operate more or less as they wish, without being forced to accept govt. edicts.

The Church of the SubGenius has offered Short Duration Marriages™ (Shor-Dur-Mar) for years, custom designed to last for nanoseconds to millenia.

http://www.subgenius.com/marriage.html

Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress posited such a thing decades ago, along with clan, line, and a number of other variations on the plain-vanilla version.

"How about we get the government totally out of it? Do away with all government law and policy that has to do with marriage whether pro or con and let it go to contract law of partnerships. Limit it to contract or religious status only."

You just contradicted yourself in your last sentence. The government enforces contracts. it's called the "courts".

There used to be a form of marriage like this in Ireland. These marriaiges were called Tailtiu marriages" because they were concluded on May Day at the annual fair at Tailtiu. They were vlaid for a year and lapsed unless renewed. If you've never ehard of this type of marriage, it's because the custom became extinct. Draw your own conclusions.

Nothing provides a more loving context for a child to test the boundaries of his energy and his feelings for others than the certainty of his parent's adult and enduring love for each other right up until the termination of the contract, scheduled for the day he starts college, and I hope you've been studying for the S.A.T.'s, you little Dreamkiller.

Those who advocate government getting out of the marriage business should ask themselves why marriage exists in the first place.

The Amish don't record their marriages with the civil authorities at all.

The only reason to do it, to to get the power of the government to enforce it, or terminate it, when things go wrong.

No divorce degree could terminate my ethical obligations to my husband. So there would be no point in getting one, unless it was a way to save our joint assets from government confiscation
(in which case, we would be in agreement and we could do it pro se and save a bunch of money )

You know what civilized people did when they absolutely could not stand to live with each other anymore back in the day? They made other living arrangements.
This makes a lot of sense and will again, when people realize that letting the lawyers, take a large portion of your joint assets for a piece of government paper to negate another piece of paper is a really stupid way to allocate your resources.

A marriage is a contract - some components are oral, some written (pre-nups). I don't like the renewal thing because anything that requires me to go back to the court and pay them more money for another "service" (think annual car registration), has a way of just costing way too much money and be a logistical nightmare, some examples provided by Isab above.

If people took the time to write down expectations first, there will likely be less marriages, and therefore less divorces. It seems like a lot of people don't think about any of the consequences of getting married - figuring "love" is enough to get you through all and they will figure it all out after marriage.