Gabriele Pauli, member of the Bavarian conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party caused massive uproar by proposing to limit validity of civil marriages to seven years. After that time the married couple would have a chance to decide again if they want to stay married or not. If they would decide against it, they would not have to go through the procedure of divorce, saving time, money and probably also lots of emotional distress. (see: Times online)
I like her idea a lot, as I see it as the first step towards abolishing institution of marriage altogether. From personal experience I can only say that there is no more satisfying relationship than the one which is not bound by any sort of contract (or definition) and in which you can give your partner (and get it back as well) all the freedom in the world, and where you and your partner use this freedom to consciously choose day by day and night by night to stay together for one more day and one more night. And even if such relationship ends, still you are left with the best gift of all: in somebody's eyes you were the most fascinating person for these x of days, months, weeks, years.