Research On The Identification Rules Of The Couple’s Common Debt In China

The identification of the Couple’s Common Debt is the foundation and the key to resolving the dispute of the Couple’s Common Debt.How to identify the Couple’s Common Debt is not only related to the benefit of both husband and wife,but also related to the benefit of creditors and the security of transactions.With the rapid development of the social economy,the property relationship between spouses is becoming more complicated,which makes it more difficult to correctly and reasonably identify the Couple’s Common Debt.In judicial practice,the issue of the identification of the Couple’s Common Debt has always been a matter of widespread concern and widespread controversy.The Marriage Law and related judicial interpretations have stipulated the identification standard the Couple’s Common Debt and the distribution rules of the responsibility of proof.However,these provisions neither balance the benefit between wife and creditors,nor resolve the dispute of the Couple’s Common Debt properly.At the same time,the conflict between the regulations has led to the emergence of “different judgments in the same case” in judicial trials,which has greatly damaged the credibility of the judiciary.To solve this situation,the Supreme People’s Court issued the "Interpretation of the Issues Concerning the Application of Laws Concerning the Trial of Cases Concerning Couples’ Debt Disputes" on January 17 last year,striving to improve the identification standards for Couple’s Common Debt and to improve the rationality of the distribution of the responsibility of proof.Although China has promulgated a number of legal documents to solve the problem of determining the Couple’s Common Debt,there are still some shortcomings in these regulations that make it impossible to properly resolve the disputes of Couple’s Common Debt in practice.The identification rules of the Couple’s Common Debt include the identification standard and the distribution rules of the responsibility of proof.There are three main problems in the identification rules for the Couple’s Common Debt in China: the connotation of the Couple’s Common Debt is still unclear,the identification standard of the Couple’s Common Debt are still unclear and the distribution rules of the responsibility of proof are not perfect.The main body of this paper is divided into three parts,which are studied separately for the above three problems.Based on the analysis of these problems,this paper try improve the identification rules of the Couple’s Common Debt on the basis of the analysis of these issues.The first part of this paper is about the study of the connotation of the Couple’s Common Debt.Clarifying the connotation of the Couple’s Common Debt is the foundation to identify the Couple’s Common Debt correctly.The analysis of the concept and nature of the Couple’s Common Debt and its relationship with the conjugal property system is the key to clarifying the connotation of the Couple’s Common Debt.The Couple’s Common Debt shall refer to the debts that the husband and wife agree to and the debts that the husband and wife are responsible for satisfying the daily needs of the family during the duration of the marriage relationship or the debts beyond the scope of the need for the family interests.The Couple’s Common Debt is not a joint debt in nature.No matter what kind of property ownership system is implemented,the Couple’s Common Debt can be generated,but the identification rules are different.When the agreed property system is implemented,only the liabilities arising from daily family matters are recognized as the Couple’s Common Debt.But when the common property system is implemented,more kinds of liabilities are included in the Couple’s Common Debt.The second part of this paper is the study of the identification standard of the Couple’s Common Debt.At present,the unclear identification standard of the Couple’s Common Debt in China are mainly reflected in the following three aspects: the lack of systematic regulations on the daily family agency system,the unclear scope of the Couple’s Common Debt,the lack of publicity system of the conjugal property ownership.In this regard,appropriate improvements should be made.First,we should first improve the daily family agency system.On the one hand,it is necessary to clarify the scope of daily family agency rights and impose necessary restrictions on the scope.On the other hand,it is also necessary to stipulate the relief measures when the daily family agency is abused.Second,it is necessary to clarify the scope of the Couple’s Common Debt.The Couple’s Common Debt includes the debt of the agreement,the debt within the scope of daily family matters,and the debt which is outside the scope of daily family matters but for family benefit.For a debt which is infringing,unless the creditor can prove that the debt is a debt for the family’s benefits,it should be recognized as personal debt.For a debt which is arise during the separation of a couple,if the debt is not generated to fulfill the maintenance obligation,shall be recognized as personal debt,but shall not damage the benefits of the good faith creditor.Finally,it is necessary to establish a publicity system of the conjugal property ownership.Based on the situation in China,the system should adopt a registration model.In the registration mode,the marriage registration authority should also be the registration authority of the conjugal property ownership.It should make the necessary restrictions on the conditions of registration and also confirm that the registration is legally effective against third parties.The third part of this paper is the study of the distribution rules of the responsibility of proof for the Couple’s Common Debt.The new judicial interpretation has redistributed the responsibility of proof for the Couple’s Common Debt and has balances the benefits among husband and wife and creditors to a certain degree.However,the distribution rules of the responsibility of proof provided for in this interpretation can hardly protect the reliant interests of good will creditors.Good will creditors who are eligible should be allowed to apply the relevant provisions of the agency system to protect their legitimate rights and benefit.