Analysis On Widow Inheritance Disputes In The Early Republic Of China

In the early of Republic of China, known as typical social transition period, the question on dissolving of disputes in local society are always major problem by scholars. In recent years, informative judicial archives have been published, supplied enough original literature to study it. Previously, scholars always discuss it focus on the judicial practice of Supreme Court and the force of lex scripta, merely people hold micro-perspective view to find specific dissolves in local area. Been aware of it,we take Longquan judicial archives for example, concentrated on the rational option on dissolving of inheritance disputes.Especially when a widow get a heir, it always led to complex inheritance disputes. In addition to the introduction and conclusion, this paper is divided into three parts.The first part is about the genre of inheritance disputes, especially in the condition when widow get heirs.According to classify the inheritance cases in Longquan judicial archives, we find two sorts litigation about it, then we discuss archives and judicial precedent about the two litigation. At last, based on above facts, we conclude the main dispute of two sorts litigation and the material cause about it.The second part is about resolving approach for inheritance disputes.Rest on above discussions, we find three routines to solve the inheritance disputes in Longquan judicial archives. The methods are negotiation, clan mediation and litigation. In this part,we focus on participants and procedure in the specific way to dissolve disputes. The third part is about traits in dissolving of inheritance disputes.In the end, scholars previously pay much more attention on the government’s authority on dissolving disputes, less notice on the civil authority, which always pay the key role on dissolving inheritance disputes.