Family Trial Systems In Civil Law Countries And Its Enlightenments

The types of civil cases in our country are very complicated.Because of their multiple attributes,such as:identity disputes and property disputes,family cases are the most common types of civil cases and the most special type of civil cases.For example,the debate doctrine that we advocate in ordinary civil cases can not be widely applied because of the restriction of the special status of relationships in family disputes.In recent years,with the establishment of a pilot reform of family justice across the country and the promulgation of a series of laws governing family disputes such as the "Anti-Domestic Violence Law," great achievements have been made in the reform of our country's family justice trial and the future will also show great vitality.However,it can not be denied that there is still a certain distance between our country and the development of the family justice system in other countries and regions outside our country.In view of the particularity of family cases,in order to properly handle family cases,different countries and regions outside the country have formulated procedural laws and regulations that are specifically applicable to family cases.From the 19th century to the 21st century,many countries outside the region have conducted a wide range of legislation and reforms related to family justice.For example,the German Civil Procedure Law of 1877 provided for litigation procedures for matrimonial incidents and proceedings for banning incidents of maternity and feudal rights.Later,it was changed into marital incidents,the legal relationship between maternity and paternity and the banning of incarceration,and then to household incidents Procedures,including parent-child incidents,parenting incidents,etc.,and detailed procedures for each of the incidents.In the 21st century,Germany separated the contents of family events from the German Code of Civil Procedure and put it together with the Non-Prosecution Law to establish the Procedural Law on Family Events and Non-Prosecution Cases.Japan's 1898 Personnel Proceedings Act provides for identity-based proceedings,followed by the Family Litigation Act of 1947,which provides for non-litigation proceedings.In 2003,Japan revised the Personnel Procedural Law and the Person Code of Procedure Law to conduct an in-depth conceptual study of the concepts and specific aspects of personnel litigation.In 2011,Japan amended the "Family Justice Law" and formulated a more universal "Family Affairs Procedural Law.”The article first analyzes and researches the specific reforms of family law and trial systems in Japan and Germany which belong to the same jurisdiction with us,and adopts methods such as comparison and induction to summarize the characteristics of trial reforms in the two countries.For example,Germany,as the first country in the world to independently legislate for family matters,has a very rich and complete law system governing dispute resolution in family cases.The two landmark stages of the reform process are the promulgation of"Law of Non-litigation Procedures in Germany" in 1898 and the promulgation of the "German Family Affairs and Non-Litigation Affairs Procedural Law" in 2008.The article will focus on the reform focus of "German Family Affairs and Non-Litigation Affairs Procedural Law" compared to the "Law of Non-litigation Procedures in Germany",in order to summarize and analyze of Germany's family trial reform focus:that creating system of protection for children's interests,strengthening the mediation and clarifying the important role of the family court.Japan,which is also among the civil law countries has the same strong traditional concept of family harmony as we Chinese.Its family trial reform started early and has a high degree of development,from where we can learn from a lot.The promulgation of "Personnel Litigation Procedures Law" in 1898,the promulgation of "Family Trial Law" in 1947,and the Promulgation of "Personnel Litigation Law" in 2003 are the three milestone stages in the Japanese family trial reform.The article adopted the focus of its reforms at each stage.The analysis found that the focus of Japan's family trial reforms was to develop an independent trial agency—a family court;expand the system of family ombudsman to protect children's rights;and strengthen mediation and compulsory mediation systems.After summarizing the main directions of the reform of Germany and Japan on behalf of civil law countries,the article analyzes the current status of China's current family-trial legislation and reforms based on the actual situation in China.It finds that there is a lack of specialized domestic dispute arbitration institutions,a lack of independent trial procedures for family disputes resolution,inadequate protection of the interests of minors,and failure to adequately play the role of meditation,which have seriously hindered the development of the family trial system.After clarifying the direction that the reform should focuse on,the article finally draws lessons from Germany and Japan's advanced experience in the reform of family matters and proposes constructive opinions on various issues in the development of China's judicial trial reforms,including the construction of family courts with Chinese characteristics,development of China's "Family Litigation Procedure Law ",the setting up of the "Family Investigation Officer" in order to maintain the rights and interests of minors and the implement the "Mediation Preposition System".