Legal System Research On Returning Betrothal Gifts

Bride originated from “NaZheng” system of the “Six Manners” in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Through thousands of years, betrothal gift system is still very popular as the traditional customs in China's vast area. As for the legal attribute of the betrothal gift, there are many scholars' disputes. With the changing times and developing ideas, the stability of marriage has declined. Breaking an engagement and flash marriage phenomenon intensified. Disputes caused by the dowry is also more and more. “China's Marriage Law interpretation(b)”Article X set the rules of returning betrothal gifts, but the provisions are too simple to operate. So there are a lot of problems in practical operation. Therefore, it's necessary to improve the legal regulations of the betrothal gift as soon as possible, then to solve the disputes of betrothal gift perfectly. In this regard, on the basis of concluding and summarizing the concept of the system of betrothal gift, this paper defines the legal attribute of betrothal gift as bestowal attached with cancellation terms, which divides into to cases as the marriage unestablished and the marriage cancelled. In accordance to the reality, this paper analyzes the problems of the present legal system of betrothal gift, including the conflicts with folk customs, the ambiguity of the scale of the betrothal gift and the scale of returning, and the uncertainty of the bodies of the litigation and the statute of limitations of the litigation. This paper proposes the suggestions of improving the system of betrothal gift, such as defining the guidelines of returning the betrothal gift, specifying the scale of betrothal gift, limiting the upper limit of betrothal gift, expanding the scope of the parties, introducing the system of fault mechanism as well as defining the limitation of action for returning betrothal gift and some other suggestions.