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Squark comments on Open Thread, Jun. 22 - Jun. 28, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion
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When all is well and people are living peacefully and amicably, you don't really need the law. When problems come up, you want clear laws detailing each party's rights, duties, and obligations. For example, when a couple lives together for a decade while sharing assets and jointly building wealth, what happens when one party unilaterally wants to end the relationship? This situation is common enough that it's worth having legal guidelines for its resolution.
The various spousal privileges are also at issue. Sure, you can file all kinds of paperwork to grant the individual legal rights to a romantic partner. At this point the average person needs to consult an attorney to make sure nothing is missed. What happens when someone doesn't? You can expedite the process by drafting a special document that allows all these rights to be conferred as part of a package deal, but now you're on the verge of reinventing marriage.
The legal issues surrounding the circumstances of married life will still remain whether marriage is a legal concept or no.
The legal issues remain, but I see no reason to delegate them to the government. The people involved should be able to come up with any contract they like, regardless of their gender, number or the nature of their relationship. After all, we don't have special legal status for relationships between landlord and tenant, employer and employee etc.