On The Expansion Of Civil Status

Status which is used in the legal sense can date back to the ancient Rome period, where there were mainly three types of status, that is,citizen and non-citizen(status civitatis), freeman and slave(status libertatis), father and son(status familiae). However, with the advancing of the famous thesis of "from status to contract" by Henry Sumner Maine and the subsequent effect of German civil, status is restricted to the family law, from then on, status is seldom inquired by academic scholars. With the profound changes in the social and economic life, following the questioning and reflection on the thesis of Henry Maine, in the law academia a new wave called" from contract to status" is raised, in succession some new statuses appeared. As for whether such statuses exist and what function they perform, the replies are nearly heaven and earth either from the practical department to academic circle. This paper is discussed in the above background.This paper falls into three parts—Introduction, Text and Epilogue.The introduction outlines the author's motivation and limits the studying scope.Chapter one is about the history of evolution of civil status.First of all,this chapter defines the civil status from the etymological angle: civil status means the different position of civil subject before law in the civil legal relationship.Basing on this definition, it introduces the reduction and expansion of civil status in the developing process of civil law.Chapter two makes a study on the expansion of civil status in China. It considers the expansion of civil status in China as its research object.From the external and internal aspects of civil status,it deduces and argues that the civil status has expanded from among the ties of kindred to the relationship beyond that. It not only figures out the problem of our country,but also further proves the great trend of the expansion of civil status.Chapter three discusses the designing of civil status in China. It mainly sets out three types of designing ideas. After reviewing the status quo of civil status in China,it puts forward some suggestions and thoughts about the designing of civil status in China. The epilogue shows the prospect of expansion of civil status.