Changes In Women's Inheritance Rights During The Republic Of China

In the traditional Chinese inheritance law system influenced by patriarchal law,women are in a neglected position.Whether as a wife or a daughter,she not only could not inherit family lineage,but also had no right to inherit property.From the end of Qing Dynasty to the period of Republic of China,because of the end of the isolation,great changes have taken place in China's economic foundation,political system and ideology.Women's right to inheritance began to change.This change is fundamentally attributed to the change of economic base,and also affected by politics,culture,military and other aspects.The change of the feminine right displays the features of curves and incompletion at the legislative level,and also evolution at the judicial level.The first chapter discusses the women in the traditional inheritance system before the Republic of China,Taking Tang,song and Qing Dynasties as representatives,this paper introduces the initial state of women's inheritance right in feudal society.Their rights are not as few as imagined,but not many.The daughter only has a chance to inherit the family's inheritance and widows can have the right to manage the estate under the premise of keeping their will.The reason why women can't get the right of inheritance in feudal society is because of cohabitation and common wealth system and strong clan concept,and the basic reason is the backward small-scale peasant economy.The second chapter discusses the changes of women's inheritance rights in the period of the Republic of China from the legislative and judicial perspectives.From<The Civil law Draft of Qing Dynasty>,<Civil law Draft of Republic of China> to <the Law of the Republic of China>,women's inheritance rights grew out of nothing and were gradually recognized by the law.In the judicial field,the Dali Yuan broke through the legal regulations during the Beiyang government and partially recognized women's inheritance rights.However,the promulgation of the resolution of women's movement did not bring about the fundamental change of women's inheritance rights,but regressed.During the period of Nanjing National Government,daughters and widows obtained the right of inheritance,but the disconnection between reality and law made women's inheritance rights not reach the ideal state of legal imagination.The third chapter discusses the trend of changes in female inheritance rights during the Republic of China and the enlightenment for current legislation and justice.Although the process is tortuous,generally speaking,as a whole,feminine right still manifests the developing trend to independence,equality,and right standard during the Republic China.This is the inevitability of historical development.The tortuous development of women's inheritance rights enlightens us to make good use of policies,make good use of judicial interpretations,pay attention to the combination of customary law and national law,use law transplants with caution,and strengthen law popularization education.Taking the past as a mirror,in today's rapid development and reform,the legal development process of the Republic of China can give us a lot of experience and lessons.