The Predicament And Settlement Of Bigamy

Today, bigamy has become a serious social problem and is getting worse, which does severe harm to the society and the family. Bigamy’s manifestation/reflections and reasons are various and complicated. In order to protect the social system of modern civilization—"the monogamy" and to maintain the stable domesticity and good customs/culture, the criminal law fights against the behaviors of seriously violating the marriage relationship at such a high level as criminal offences.Clause258of the Criminal Law of PRC provides a legal basis for punishing this crime and implements "the monogamy" entirely and effectively in our country. However, it can be seen in the judicial practice that the appearance of de facto marriage, having a concubine, adultery and so on in the society makes the judgments of bigamy even more complicate. Whereas, since the legal definition of bigamy is quite simple, it is hard, or sometimes even impossible, to judge the case of bigamy. Besides, it has been a while since the criminal law was framed; the relevant provisions of bigamy cannot meet the needs of the development of social situation. The criminal law is lack of detailed stipulation of the circumstances of the crime, so it is difficult to judge the case of bigamy because of the facts that the extension of accusation is small, it is hard to distinguish crime from innocence and it is difficult for the no-fault party to provide the proof. Based on this, this paper analyzes the predicament of bigamy, the relative legislative experience of bigamy abroad and at home and some typical cases to offer some suggestions for the deficiency of legislation and seek efficient ways to solve increasingly serious practical situation of bigamy so as to maintain the stability and peace of family and the society.The body of the paper is mainly divided into three parts. In part one, the predicament of bigamy is put forward, which includes the difficulty in distinguishing crime from innocence, the controversy of public prosecution and private prosecution and the inconsequence of the set of legal punishment. There are also some relative typical cases as proof in this part. In part two, the predicament is analyzed one by one based on the constitution of the bigamy. In part three, suggestions are put forward to perfect the legislation in our country.