Study On The Third Person’s Civil Liability Of Marriage Relationship Infringement

Marriage is a kind of combination between men and women for the purpose ofliving together and is recognized and protected by the law. In the marriage and familyrelationship, the couples undertake certain obligations mutually, among which themost important one is the obligation of loyalty (also called as the obligation ofchastity). Article4in the Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China clearlydefines that husband and wife shall be faithful to and respect each other. So, if one partybreaches this obligation and cohabitates with others or other behaviors of disloyalty, theunerring party not only can desire a divorce, but also have the right to claim for damages. If theerring party commits bigamy, he may even bear criminal liability. These are clearly defined inour country’s relevant laws, which is worthy of recognition. However, for the third person whois at fault for infringing marriage relationship, his behavior also causes mental pain or the lossof property interests of the aggrieved spouse, can the unerring party advocate the damageclaims to the third party? This question involves individual, family, society, ethics and othermany factors, so there are certain differences in the provisions of laws in each county (region).The court case often shift the ground, the theoretical circle is unable to agree on which is right,and the personal value judgment among them adds its complexity. This provides space for usto improve the relevant legislation.The author thinks that the legitimate foundation of claims should be found firstlyto determine whether the unerring party has the damage claims of the third person. Only by finding the appropriate foundation of claims, the unerring party has goodreason to advocate damage claims to the third person. There is not unified theory onthis foundation, some thinks that the right of reputation is infringed; some thinks thatthe general personality right is infringed, and some thinks that the loyalty obligation isviolated and so on. For this, the author advocates to establish the right of spousethrough the law, and that the third person is liable for damages for infringing the rightof spouse. Therefore, the author conducted a comparison study on the relevantlegislation in each country and region, tried to find the latest frontier theory andpractice trend and to define the right of spouse as a kind of identity right having thedual attributes of relativity and absolutism by combining the actual situation of ourcountry’s legislation and practice and by defining the concept and properties of theright of spouse, so as to establish the right of spouse as the basis of the damage claimsto the third person, to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the unerringparty effectively, and to punish the third person’s behaviors of infringing the marriagerelationship.In order to show its maneuverability, the author also analyzes the components ofinfringement behavior of marriage relationship from illegal behavior, damage fact,causality and subjective fault these four aspects at the same time, and divides thespecific scope and form of responsibility as property damage liability, personaldamage liability and metal damage liability as last. The author carries out a deep andcomprehensive elaboration, forming a relatively complete liability system, to providesome useful references for our country’s legislation for protecting the marriagerelationship (the right of spouse) through theoretical discussion and research.