The Definition Of Bigamy And Its Legal Validity In Civil Law

Since the bigamy has become a general case of the world's marriage system.Bigamy which is the most serious act is always prohibited by all countries.The paper explores the bigamy in civil law from two aspects,one of the aspects is the Definition of bigamy,the other is its legal validity.Article 3 of the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China prohibits bigamy.But there is no further explanation for “bigamy”.Academia also lacks a unified understanding.Academia generally defines “bigamy” as “the act of a person who has a couple marrying again.” But the definition is still unclear.The definitions of “bigamy” has been explained one by one in this paper.People who want to marriage must meet the conditions stipulated in the Marriage Law.For example,marriage must be based upon the complete willingness of both man and woman;and they must reach the legal age.Also bigamy shall be prohibited.Therefore,the word "marriage" in the Marriage Law refers only to the legal and valid marriage.But if this is the concept of “marriage” in the definition of bigamy,the concept of “bigamy” will not exist in logic.Therefore,this paper attempts to distinguish the establishment and effectiveness of the marriage from the legal act theory.The term “marriage” in the concept of “bigamy” is different from that of “marriage” in Marriage Law,and only refers to the establishment of marriage.On the basis of the distinction between establishment and effectiveness of the the marriage,this paper further explains the “spouse”,which means a person who has one or more valid marriages when he or she marry again.There is also a different understanding of the word “again” under the definition of bigamy.The difference lies in whether the “marrying two people at the same time” is also a type of bigamy.This paper argues that the “again” in the bigamy does not include the case of “marrying two people at the same time”.Marriage Law 2001 amendment established invalid marriage,which prescribed bigamy is invalid marriage.But the system is not perfect,therefore,the Supreme People's Court make up for the lack of the system by the judicial interpretation.This paper focuses on two issues,one is that whether bigamy could be applied to Article 8 of the judicial interpretation of Marriage Law.This paper argues that bigamy could be applied to the judicial interpretation,because the judicial interpretation does not specify the scope of the judicial interpretation of the application.The other issue is that the distribution of property during the cohabitation of the parties after the announcement of the invalid marriage.This paper argues that the role of the judicial interpretation of the article is to give judges a judgment of property distribution standards.Therefore,the “co-ownership” here means "equal share".