Research On The Legislation To Govern Non-marital Cohabitation In China

In recent years,unmarried cohabitation has developed rapidly in China.More and more people begin to unmarried cohabitation to form a living community,which challenges the traditional marriage and family system and arouses people’s high attention to unmarried cohabition.In this context,the study of unmarried cohabitation is of great significance.In the theoretical level,the study of unmarried cohabitation is to explore the future trend of family law,and also to improve the family law system;in the practical level,the study of unmarried cohabitation is to explore the construction of the legal system of unmarried cohabitation suitable for China’s localization,to provide a reasonable guidance mechanism for the diversification of gender relations,and to provide some reference for judicial practice to deal with cohabitation disputes.Unmarried cohabitation occurs when the opposite sex without spouse lives together without registering for marriage.Compared with marriage,unmarried cohabitation is more free,equal and simple.It is favored by young people.Trial marriage is the main appeal of young people to choose unmarried cohabitation.Some middle-aged people also choose unmarried cohabitation to avoid the moral obligation behind the registered marriage and the conflicts between the intergenerational children.In addition to young people and middle-aged people,the elderly people also gradually join the unmarried cohabitation Some divorced and widowed elderly people choose to live together out of wedlock for the purpose of providing for the aged.In reality,the acceptance of unmarried cohabitation is increasing,and the number of people who choose unmarried cohabitation is also increasing.However,due to the lack of regulation of the existing laws on the personal,property relations and children of unmarried cohabitation,it is unable to make reasonable and orderly guidance on this phenomenon,resulting in the rapid growth of related disputes,which has become a problem that the legislation has to face.From the perspective of individual rights,to face up to unmarried cohabitation is to protect the freedom and equal rights of cohabitants;from the perspective of social customs and ethics,unmarried cohabitation contains traditional marriage customs,which is the accumulation of thousands of years of cultural customs;from the perspective of the relationship between unmarried cohabitation and the nature of family,unmarried cohabitation bears the functions of traditional marriage and family,such as material,economic,fertility,emotional communication,and so on Family characteristics should be included in the family law system.Therefore,legislation should timely regulate the non marital cohabitation.In the future,the legislation of unmarried cohabitation in China should implement the principle of differentiation from marriage,the principle of autonomy of will and the principle of the best interests of children.On the premise of adhering to the mainstream status of marriage,we should fully respect the independent will of the parties of unmarried cohabitation and effectively protect the interests of children.In terms of legislative model,we should formulate the cohabitation law and choose the identity model to regulate cohabitation.In terms of specific system,cohabitation relationship with full capacity,no existing sexual union,voluntary establishment of living community and having lived together for more than two years can be included in the object of non marital cohabitation regulation.The parties may request the court to confirm or terminate the cohabitation relationship;In terms of personal relationship,natural persons who have the status of "partner" of unmarried cohabitants have the duty of loyalty;In the aspect of property relationship legislation,the cohabitation property system should be established,which is characterized by the priority of agreed property system and the priority of separate property system;In terms of the relationship between parents and children of unmarried cohabitation,"parent-child" is used to replace the title of "children born out of wedlock",and the right to visit parents and children of unmarried cohabitation is established to maximize the interests of children.