| The aged people used to the dominator in the China’s traditional culture. And traditionallegal system was nearly all-around with regard to protection of the aged people. Chineseancient laws on providing for the aged, which supported the aged people via insuring theirsupremacy in family, specified family responsibilities in aged-support and were supplementedby the national liability, and formed a sound family aged-support mode with the support fromgovernment’s policy. This mode is conduce to solve the dilemma of current laws on providingfor the aged, which is encountering problems such as getting aged before getting rich, hyper-aged, and unbalanced development of social aged-support system.Therefore, the author finds out the continuing value core from the seemingly messyancient laws on providing for the aged by sorting and analyzing them. Chinese ancient laws,mainly criminal laws, achieved aged-support by the legal provisions of criminal responsibility.On the one hand, Chinese ancient laws on providing for the aged emphasized familyobligations that guaranteed by national statute and behaviors that breach of this duty would beseverely punished; on the other hand, they emphasized the responsibilities of government forproviding for the aged and which were turned towards institutionalization gradually. Althoughancient laws on providing for the aged was the inevitable result of adaption to socialdevelopment at that time, their provision on responsibilities and government guaranteedfamily providing for the aged mode and so on are enlightening for perfecting of Chinesemodern legal system of aged-support.This dissertation explores the significance of Chinese ancient laws on providing for theaged to perfecting of modern legal system of aged-support using research method of ancient–modern comparison. The author believes that the ancient laws on providing for the aged areindispensable to structure a modern legal system of aged-support.Besides the introduction and concluding remark, this dissertation is structured as follows:Part one expounds legal dilemma of aged-support under the background of populationageing in China. Although more explicit provisions have appeared in the new revision of Lawon Protection of Rights and Interests of the Elderly, the current legal system of aged-supportstill remains problems including the responsibility not clear enough, the provisions notsystematic and so on. Part two elaborates the main content of laws on providing for the aged of ancient Chinaand analyzes them with the vein of historical development. The ancient laws on providing forthe aged, with filial piety as their core, promoted the aged-providing from morality level tolaw. These laws guaranteed the absolutely dominant position of the elderly by severepunishments and therefore aged-providing. Considering the predicament of providing for theaged in China, the author insists that two primary virtues of ancient laws on providing for theaged deserve to learn. The first one is aged-providing guaranteed by legal liability, and thesecond is legalization of government’s responsibilities on providing for the aged.Part three is focused on the design of legal system with Chinese characteristics forproviding for the aged. Construction of this legal system should perfect the existing legalsystem through cooperating between legal branches involved; and should draw and use thespiritual core of Chinese ancient laws on providing for the aged.Part four is the concluding discussion on whether problems of providing for the aged canbe solved solely by laws. Law as a means to solve problems of aged-providing has itslimitations, and other supporting facilities should be improved to coordinate laws to protect ofrights and interests of the aged. |
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