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(5) Marriage is be bound by the law of the place where they get married, while a divorce shall be bound by the law of the place where a court accepts the case. (Art. 147 GPCL)
(6) Maintenance of a spouse after divorce shall be bound by the law of the country to which the spouse is most closely connected. (Art. 148 GPCL)
(7) In the statutory succession of an estate, movable property shall be bound by the law of the decedent’s last place of residence, and immovable property shall be bound by the law of the place where the property is situated. (Art. 149 GPCL)
IV. Law of Marriage, Law of Adoption and Law of Inheritance
1. Law of Marriage
The new Chinese marriage law was adopted in 2001. I will just mention the new changes in the law of marriage in the following.
(1) Finally we can marry freely now.
In the old marriage law, there was one extra condition for marriage, which was the approval of the leaders of the institution, organisation, corporation and etc where both you and your spouse work. Without a written document of approval by your leader you cannot marry. Now this limit has been abandoned at all.
(2) The procedure of divorce is less complicated.
Under the old marriage law regime, divorce is the most burdensome procedure. Whether the two parties agree to divorce or not, they must go into the procedure of mediate, which is not an authority and is normally constituted by the juniors working with you or living with you. They will try to persuade you two not to divorce. This process can last for more than one year, or years. And this procedure is compulsive. Some moralist said that it is probably the most important reason for low divorce rate before the new marriage law. Within the new marriage law, this procedure became optional.
(3) Husband and wife can conclude a contract to determine the allocation of their own property before or after marriage.
The old marriage law prescribed that all the property, whether husband’s or wife’s, before marriage or after marriage must be evenly and collectively owned by the two parties. It means 50% for each one, no more no less. Now the two parties can decide by consent how to allocate their property, whether obtained before marriage or after marriage. If there is no such contract, 50% for everyone.
(4) Compensation for non-fault party in case of divorce
The new marriage law provides that in case of divorce the non-fault party can claim for damage from the fault party. The damage can be claimed only in the following situations:
(1) bigamy, i.e. marrying one person while still legally married to another;
(2) living together with someone else other that your own spouse;
(3) family violence;
(4) abuse or abandon family members.
This is a new article.
(5) A special provision in Chinese marriage law
In case one married party is an active soldier, his consent of divorce is a necessary condition for divorce. Without his consent, even the court cannot announce the divorce. However, if both husband and wife are active soldiers, this article does not apply to them.
2. Law of Inheritance
The inheritance law was adopted in 1985, one before the adoption of GPCL. There is no problems concerning this law and I think its whole provisions will be codified in the new draft of civil law and therefore will continue to be effective.
The decreased person can conclude a contract to distribute his property before his death. There is no big difference herein from other countries. The difference of inheritance law among all countries exists in statutory inheritance. I will introduce the provisions for statutory inheritance in the following.
In case of no inheritance agreement, the property of the decreased will be distributed as followed:
(1) The first-level heirs, which exclude the inheritance of all other heirs:
Surviving spouse, parents and children (including illegitimate children)
(2) The second-level heirs, who hold the right of inheritance only when there is no first level heir:
Brothers and sisters, grandfather/mother, grandfather/mother in law
All the heirs at the same level has equal right of inheritance, which means the property of the decreased will be evenly distributed in the heirs at the same level.
3. Law of Adoption
I assume that there is no big difference of Chinese adoption law from other states. So I will only introduce some special provisions.
(1) The minors who can be adopted must be less than 14 years old
(2) The adopting person must have no child and be more than 30 years old.
(3) In case a male person without spouse adopts a young girl, the adopting person must be 45 years older than the adopted person.
(4) Once adopted, the adopted child has the same right prescribed by the related law as the born child of the adopted person.
V. IP law
It contains three parts, i.e. copyright law, patent law and trademark law. The new laws were adopted after joining WTO.
1. Legal Provisions
(1) Copyright law
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