So, okay, Emma and Julian entered into a hasty and ill-considered parabatai bond back in CoHF because they didn't want to be separated as orphans. That was an understandable attempt to prevent the Clave from placing them in different foster care. Now it's a problem because they are older, romantically attracted to each other and yet even Jem warns that parabatai falling in love leads to Bad Things happening.
That's our core conflict it would seem.
However, it has already been established that the parabatai bond is not inviolable. It can be severed in any number of ways. The examples we know about include:
1) One of the partners becoming a Downworlder (e.g. a werewolf like Luke)
2) One of the partners becoming a Silent Brother, and probably an Iron Sister (e.g. Jonathan and David).
3) The Clave can somehow severe the bond if they deem it appropriate, possibly as a punishment (e.g. Robert Lightwood and Michael Wayland).
Number 3 in particular stands out, because it implies that if a parabatai pair were to become problematic by falling in love, the Clave could do something about it. Now, stupidity and the Clave go together like chocolate and peanut butter. But unless they have some moronic Law in place that says they can only sever parabatai bonds as a punishment for particular crimes and not, logically, in cases where the pair want out because they have become romantically involved then the question is: Why do Emma and Julian have a problem?
This creates what seems (to me at least) like a false conflict. Unlike the situation when Clary and Jace erroneously believed that they were siblings, something which could not be fixed had it been true, Emma and Julian really have options for getting out of their bond - unless the sole rationale is that the Clave is obnoxious and only does things when they get to hurt people by doing them.
Any thoughts?