On The Couple's Loyalty Agreement

In marital relations of our present society,there have been more and more phenomena where marriages fail because of extramarital affairs.Although Article 4 of Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China(Hereinafter referred to as Marriage Law)regulates that husband and wife shall be faithful to each other,this article is not justiciable,and Article 46 only has narrow application ranges.So,it is insufficient for current laws to provide adequate and complete relief for parties involved.Therefore,husband and wife choose to sign Couple's Loyalty Agreements,hoping that both parties can actively fulfill the duty of loyalty and maintain the stability of marriage.There are no provisions on Couple's Loyalty Agreements in current laws of China.Besides,academic circles have many disputes about its effectiveness,application of law,individual justiciability and other problems,which lead to the phenomenon of different judgments of the same case when courts adjudicate such cases.In this case,this paper uses case study method,literature study method and other methods to research validity determination,application of law and other problems occurring in judicial practice of Couple's Loyalty Agreements so as to provide the court with a uniform reference basis for such cases and to give some guidance to judicial practice.This paper can be divided into five chapters and their main contents are as follows:Chapter 1 introduces laws and regulations of China on husband and wife loyalty obligation and draws forth dispute focuses on Couple's Loyalty Agreements in juridical practice through introducing five typical cases,i.e.whether Couple's Loyalty Agreementsare effective and whether we can find legal basis for its validity in Chinese law.Chapter 2 introduces the classification of Couple's Loyalty Agreements.This paper does distinctive researches on their effectiveness,so the classification of Couple's Loyalty Agreements is the premise for the research of their effectiveness.Couple's Loyalty Agreements can be divided into personal agreements,property settlement agreements and mixed agreements.Chapter 3 does distinctive researches on the effectiveness of Couple's Loyalty Agreements.Basically speaking,academic circles do not have disputes on the effectiveness of personal Couple's Loyalty Agreements.On the basis of the brief analysis of several common types,this paper draws a conclusion that it is generally invalid.This paper mainly focuses on researching property settlement Couple's Loyalty Agreements,which includes invalid theory,efficient theory and natural debt theory.This chapter analyzes and sorts out the three theories and draws opinions of this paper—property settlement Couple's Loyalty Agreements are valid.Chapter 4 discusses the application of law of Couple's Loyalty Agreements.Couple's Loyalty Agreements should not be adjusted by Marriage Law,The Contract Law of the People's Republic of China(Hereinafter referred to as The Contract Law)and The Tort Liability Law of the People's Republic of China(Hereinafter referred to as The Tort Liability Law)and they should be adjusted by General Provisions of the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China(Hereinafter referred to as General Provisions of the Civil Law).The effectiveness elements of civil juristic acts regulated in Article 143 are legal basis for determining its effectiveness recognition.Chapter 5 researches that whether Couple's Loyalty Agreements have individual justiciability and difficult testification problem occurred in juridical practice.This paper analyzes two theories on whether Couple's Loyalty Agreements have individual justiciability and draws the conclusion that the agreements have individual justiciability.This paper also puts forward some methods in reducing testification difficulties.