A Comparative Study Of The Legal Application System Of Foreign-related Marriages Between Russia And China

Since the former Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991,the number of foreign-related marriages,meaning marriages between Russian and foreign citizens,has sufficiently increased.As judicial practice shows,“limping marriages” in different countries and regions are caused because of different laws and regulations concerned with foreign-related marriages.In spite of the fact,that the Family Code of the Russian Federation was subjugated to amendments in February 2020,hence it can't still solve the problems of the conflict of laws in the sphere of foreign-related marriage.This master thesis is devoted to the discussion of the questions and conflict surrounding these Russian laws.This will be done through the analysis of the articles of the Family Code,the Civil Code of the Russian Federation,the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Laws Applicable to Foreign-related Civil Relations("Applicable Law"),and case law concerned with foreign-related marriages.Through this analysis,this master thesis will detect the disadvantages of the Russian laws and give recommendations on their amendments.This master thesis applies a comparative analysis approach to real case studies with historical methods for analyzing the substantive and formal requirements of a foreign-related marriage,regulated by the Family Code of the Russian Federation and Civil Code of the Russian Federation Part 3 – Private International Law.The master thesis consists of four chapters.The first chapter studies Russian laws concerned with a foreign-related marriage from a historical perspective and compares it with the former Soviet Union laws.Then art.156 § 1-4 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation,art.1195 § 1-4 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and real cases are analyzed.This analysis reveals the disadvantages of Russian law.The second chapter studies art.21 and 22 of the Applicable Law,regulating the substantive and formal requirements of a foreign-related marriage,also including the applicable law to foreigners with dual citizenship and stateless people.The third chapter summarizes the analysis and comparison of the substantive and formal requirements of a foreign-related marriage of the Russian and Chinese laws,then it reveals disadvantages of the substantive and formal requirements of a foreign-related marriage of the Russian law.The disadvantages of a foreign-related marriage of the Russian law are the following: art.156 of the Family Code and art.1195 of the Civil Code aren't the same,art.156 of the Family Code isn't full and the limping marriage could easily occur in the Russian law.The fourth chapter gives recommendations how to improve the Russian law applicable to the foreign-related marriage.Firstly,it is offered to unify art.156 of the Family Code and art.1195 of the Civil Code.Secondly,it is suggested adding “the common habitual residence law” and “the common nationality law” to art.156 §2 of the Family Code,regulating substantive requirements of a foreign marriage.Thirdly,add “the closest connection law” to art.156 §3 regulating substantive requirements of a foreign marriage of people with dual citizenships.Fourthly,in art.156 §1 add “the law of a habitual residence of one party” and “the law of nationality of one party” in order to prevent the limping marriage.The last,to unify art.156 §1,art.10 §1 of the Family Code and art.6 §2 of the Federal law “About marriage register”,preventing the violation of the country's public order.