Analysis On Legal Issues Of Non-marital Cohabitation In China

In traditional sense，legal marital relation is the only mode of constituting afamily. However，with the rapid development of current social economy，people havea more open understanding of marital relation in family. In current society pursuingpersonality and freedom，non-marital cohabitation, as a new mode of constitutingfamily starts to become common in society. The occurrence of this kind ofphenomenon not only arouses heated disputes among different parties， but alsoresults in some unsolved problems for the public in law. Through the researches onforeign law，degree of openness in most western countries is much higher than that ofour country. And legal regularity on non-marital cohabitation is relatively complete，while legal regulation and direction on non-matrimonial relation in our country isabsent. Considering a lot of disputes caused by living together withoutnon-matrimonial relation requiring the accommodation of law， legislation onnon-marital cohabitation has no time to delay. In this paper, based on the thought ofhusband and wife property and personal relation，legislative suggestions are putforward about the property system in non-marital cohabitation. Non-maritalcohabitation is closely related to the economy and culture in current society. From theperspective of freedom in love and marriage，non-marital cohabitation has therationality to exist. Faced with this kind of social reality，laws and regularities inmany countries have taken corresponding measures. Trough the research and analysisof foreign theories and monographs，the majority of countries have obviouslychanged the way of dealing non-marital cohabitation from the restrictions andopposition to protection and perfection. Legislators in various countries realize thatnon-marital cohabitation is also a unit in society, which is to some degree similar tofamily relation with relative stability and is an important link in social relation. Ifnon-marital cohabitation, a social coexistent body, can be better protected，it isimmeasurably significant for maintaining social harmony and stability. While inChina, the phenomenon of non-marital cohabitation is also emerging，and the rate ofnon-marital cohabitation is rising perpendicularly. This is closely related to the gradual openness of social ideal and common recognition of freedom in love andmarriage in our country. With increasing people choosing non-marital cohabitation，legal disputes caused by non-marital cohabitation are also emerging endlessly. Theabsence of relevant legal regulation results in the “shortage of legal system” in theissues of non-marital cohabitation. If this phenomenon continues to be ignored，unpredictably harmful result is definitely to be caused. Compared with othercountries，degree of opening of social ideal is relatively slow， and non-maritalcohabitation phenomenon only develops rapidly in recent years. Therefore, there isgreat lag of law in the field of non-marital cohabitation compared with the foreignlaws. Without relevant legal regulation, the issue of non-marital cohabitation is in anawkward situation, which is unfavorable for social harmony. In other words, theabsence of law on non-marital cohabitation is a serious defect in marriage and familylaw in our country. A legislative regulation on non-marital cohabitation is favorablefor the perfection of marriage and family law in our country and social stability andunites. In this paper, analysis and discussion are conducted on the definition ofnon-marital cohabitation and several legal issues in non-marital cohabitation. Besides,a contrastive analysis is conducted on the current situation of non-maritalcohabitation between foreign countries and China. With the study on the legislativesituation of foreign non-marital cohabitation, combined with current reality in ourcountry，legislative defect in non-marital legislation is emphasized in the discussionand many suggestions and legislative conceptions are put forward according to thereality in non-marital cohabitation. The paper is divided into three parts：The first part mainly analyzes the processing way of property in non-maritalcohabitation in the current stage in our country. With the further definition ofnon-marital cohabitation, the content and quality of property in non-maritalcohabitation are presented. Though the specialized legal regulation on non-maritalcohabitation is absent，there are many claims in theoretical field. When dealing withthe property issue in non-marital cohabitation in our country，there are differentprocessing ways of property disputes in the duration of non-marital cohabitation andin the removal period of non-marital cohabitation. It can be seen from the currentprocessing way of property issue that there are many law defects in dealing with property issue in non-marital cohabitation in our country.Dilemma of processing personal relation in non-marital cohabitation is presentedin the second part. Through the interpretation of current laws and regularities，lawdefects in the legislation in non-marital cohabitation are explicitly presented toprovide efficient measure to improve.The third part is the emphasis of discussion, which is also the summary andthorough reflection on the previous two parts. In this part，law defects and judicialdefects are discussed in handling non-marital cohabitation in current status in ourcountry. Moreover, the disadvantages are discussed and explored in dealing with legaldisputes in non-marital cohabitation by the law in our country. By concluding the lawdefects，constructive suggestions are put forward in the last part of the paper，that is toset up law system in non-marital cohabitation in the hope that the establishment ofthis law system can protect the legal interest of both parties in non-maritalcohabitation to largest extent and perfect current law system.