Che cosa resta del matrimonio?

During the last decades, the number of marriages per year is constantly decreasing and Italy is now one of the States with the lowest marriage rate in the world. Two questions are focused on. What is the reason for the Italian situation? And is this a problem for the society as a whole? The answer to the first question is based on the analysis of the effects of marriage that appears poor and unattractive to young people in Italy. Insofar as the second question, from a civil law point of view, the marriage essentially has to grant mutual protection between the spouses. Therefore a reform of marriage law– a kind of “Eherechtsmodernisierung” – is suggested to make marriage still useful in contemporary society.