The Influence Of De Facto Marriage On The Criminal Constitution Of Bigamy

Monogamy is both the rational choice of human race and symbol of social civilization in the process of evolution. However, bigamy goes against such a system, thus being the regulating object of criminal law. Recent years, bigamy has become a serious social problem because of various reasons, such as the economic development, liberalization of minds, changes of living styles, influence of western bad ideas and feudal ideas, etc. being increasingly diverse, hidden and complex, it has not only resulted in the instability of family, but also large quantity of civil and criminal cases, and damaged social harmony. But in legal practices, few cases of bigamy have been accepted in the courts, and even less people involving bigamy have been punished. The key reason for this is that definitions of marriage, bigamy and de facto marriage made by relevant laws and judicial interpretations have been ambiguous and lack of specific standards. Even de facto marriage has been sidestepped and uncertain in the legislature, thus making it a controversial issue, including crimes related to de facto marriage. As such, academics and legal practitioners have found it difficult to identify a de facto bigamy, including de facto marriage, as bigamy, and made completely reverse decisions, leading to a portion of crimes unpunished. Although de facto marriage and de facto bigamy belongs to civil law, criminal scholars have paid more and more attention to them due to their close relations to the crime of bigamy. Answers to relating questions will not only clarify the influence of de facto marriage on the constitution of bigamy in theory, but also in practice benefit the punishment of de facto bigamy, maintain social and family stability, provide lessons for future civil and criminal legislations, and better safeguard monogamy in our country.Apart from the foreword and conclusion, this thesis has three chapters.Starting from the concept and characteristics of marriage, the first chapter states that the establishment and existence of marriage will not be affected by the legal validity of marriage; And argues that the de facto marriage widely includes various facts arising from the joint lives of a male and female who have not registered as, but lived in the name of husband and wife, which do not have to have those substantive requirements of a marriage;Studies a group of related concepts, including invalid marriage, voidable marriage, cohabitation, thus helping to better understand the content of de facto marriage; After comparing legislations on de facto marriage, it analyzes the validity of de facto marriage; In the end, this chapter gives scientific classifications on de facto marriage from the perspectives of legal theory and validity, and distinguishes it in the generalized and narrow sense on one hand, the valid and invalid sense on the other hand, thus laying bases for latter study on classification of the influence of de facto marriage on bigamy.The second chapter introduced various academic opinions about the concept of bigamy; Gives its own specific definition based on the detailed argumentation on the contents of two core terms in bigamy, i.e., marriage and spouse, which states that bigamy refers to a spouse, legally or de facto, enters a marriage with another person leally or de facto, even knowing that party has a legal or de facto spouse; To better understand bigamy, the constitution of bigamy and the difference of bigamy and general bigamy are also further analyzed.Based on conclusion about de facto marriage and bigamy in the previous parts, the third chapter analyzes case by case various types of de facto bigamy, including de facto marriage, concludes that all of them constitute bigamy; And further summarize finally that the validity and order of de facto marriage do not affect the constitution of bigamy, de facto bigamy constitute bigamy, which can be a reliable reference and foundation for theoretical studies and legal practices.