Will vs Would

[jumsumtak]

State lawmakers are considering a law that would/will allow children of divorced parents as young as seven to choose the parent that they will live with, a policy that will likely dissuade their parents from disciplining or punishing their children.


So why will or why would ?

[ollapodrida]

Will is the future tense form. Would is the conditional tense. Would is used to express the future from the past's point of view.

The usual tense sequences are either Present + Future or Past + Conditional.
ie.
Use either:
lawmakers are considering a law that will ...
or
lawmakers considered a law that would ...

[jumsumtak]

I agree.

But the explanation to this question says, as we are not certain whether the law will definitely be passed we should use conditional here i.e. would is correct.

Is that right ?

[ollapodrida]

I agree.

But the explanation to this question says, as we are not certain whether the law will definitely be passed we should use conditional here i.e. would is correct.

Is that right ?

@jumsutak:
My understanding is that if we think something is going to happen, we use "will". However, if we think something is unlikely to happen, we use "would".

I guess one could argue that a law such as the one proposed in the question was probably not going to be passed.

The following links provide more detailed explanations on the the use of conditional verb forms:

https://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/conditional.htm
https://www.englishpage.com/conditional/ ... ional.html

[Gotama]

Since the lawmakers are considering the law, it is more correct to say what the effect "would" be (for the reason that ollapodrida gave).

[GMATGuruNY]

State lawmakers are considering a law that would/will allow children of divorced parents as young as seven to choose the parent that they will live with, a policy that will likely dissuade their parents from disciplining or punishing their children.


So why will or why would ?

One use of the subjunctive mood is for a situation that is HYPOTHETICAL or CONTRARY-TO-FACT.
In the sentence above, WOULD (subjunctive) is appropriate because the lawmakers are only CONSIDERING the law.
Therefore, the effects of the law are HYPOTHETICAL: they will be felt only if the law is actually PASSED.
Here is the implied meaning:

State lawmakers are considering a law that -- if passed -- WOULD allow children of divorced parents to choose...

WILL would be appropriate if the law were a done deal:

State lawmakers have just PASSED a law that, starting next year, WILL allow children of divorced parents to choose...