ARTICLE:A Review of the Development of Marriage Law in the People's

Republic of China
Spring, 2002

Reporter
79 U. Det. Mercy L. Rev. 331

Length: 28545 words

Author: Xiaoqing Feng*

I. Introduction

Marriage is the union of a man and woman confirmed by a definite social system. The form of such unity creates a
husband-and-wife relationship. Viewed from the marriage notion of Marxism, as a unity of a man and woman in a
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definite social system, marriage in its essence is a special social relation. Family is a group of relatives relation
and a life unit composed by reason of marriage, blood, adoption and mutual economic relation. The appearance of
marriage and family is a special phenomenon of human beings, and is also an important part of social systems.

The legislation of marriage and family in China began in the early years of the 1950s. Early in 1948, when the
People's Republic of China (P.R.C.) did not exist, the Women's Committee and the Legal Committee of the Central
Committee of the Chinese Communist Party set forth to draft the Marriage Law. The Joint Creed of the Chinese

legacy at the beginning of the inheritance. It thus enlarges the scope of the successors, which conflicts with the
Inheritance Law. It is even argued that at this time, the other party who has no right of inheritance may not take part
in the allocation of the legacy as a successor, but allocates the legacy in the name of the person of community
property, which is another civil legal conduct independent of inheritance that directly invades the ownership of the
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[*356] property acquired by the successor. As for testate succession, where the property that one party
acquires by testate succession is regarded as the jointly possessed property, the contents of the testament will be
changed in disguised form, and the will of the person who makes the testament will be broken. The same is true of
the grant.

The second concern is the problem that the individual property of the couple before marriage is changed to jointly
possessed property after marriage. The Suggestions provide that where the property belongs to one party before
marriage, and it is mutually used and managed after marriage, the means of production, like the house and items
that have higher value, which have been mutually used or managed for eight years, and means of livelihood of
valuable articles, which have been mutually used or managed for four years, shall be regarded as jointly possessed
property of the couple. Article 39 (2) of the Draft, mentioned before, has similar provisions, only excluding the

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The marriage law or civil law in some countries defines the concept of marriage. For example, the Act of Defending Marriage
Law, adopted by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in 1996, defines marriage as the unity of a man
and a woman. Article 1557 of the Civil Code of Portugal provides that marriage is a contract that a man and a woman, under the
provisions of this Code, make in the form of fully living together. Generally speaking, marriage is the unity of a man and a
woman aiming at living together, of which the content is the right and duty of husband and wife.
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See Yuam Yao, Research on the Upgrading the Property System of Husband and Wife, 2 J. Inst. Pol. & Legal Sci. Zhijang
Province (2001).