Judicial Practice Study On Bride Price Repayment Disputes

In recent years,under the combined influence of the growing wealth of society,the increasing gender imbalance,the prevalence of societal mindset of rivalry,and the strengthening of social mobility,the amount of the bride price has been rising,and this has led to a large number of social conflicts;disputes over the return of the bride price have flooded the people’s court.This type of dispute is mixed with both emotional and material factors,and if not handled carefully,it is very likely to lead to malicious incidents.In the era of the C ivil Code,the direct legal basis for the people’s court to handle bride price disputes is Article 5 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on the Application of the Marriage and Family Part of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China(I): “when a party requests the return of a bride price paid in accordance with custom,the people’s court shall support the request:(1)if both parties have not registered for marriage;(2)if both parties have registered for marriage but have not lived together;(3)if the payment was made before marriage and has led to difficulties in the life of the payer.The application of the provisions of subparagraphs(2)and(3)of the preceding paragraph shall be subject to the divorce of the parties”.Before the Civil Code came into force,the direct legal basis for dealing with bride price disputes was Article 10 of the Supreme People’s Court Judicial Interpretation of Marriage Law(II),which came into force in 2004;the old and new provisions remained identical in content without any changes.However,the provisions of this article are too rough to effectively meet the needs of judicial practice,resulting in the people’s court being at a loss as to what to do in such cases and the parties being dissatisfied with the judgement,as well as people having difficulty in predicting their own related behaviour.This thesis will focus on the concept,historical changes,legal nature,social attributes and development trend of the bride price to(1)examine the judicial practice of bride price disputes in C hina,(2)summarise the problems encountered in judicial practice,(3)draw on relevant systems in foreign countries,and(4)put forward suggestions as to improve the solution of bride price disputes in China.This thesis consists of an introduction,a body content,and a conclusion.The main text is divided into five chapters to respectively discuss the problems encountered in the judicial practice of bride price disputes,the causes of the problems,and how to solve the problems encountered in the judicial practice of bride price disputes.Chapter 1 introduces the significance of the chosen topic,the current status of research by scholars in C hina and abroad,the adopted research methodology,and innovations of this thesis.Chapter 2 introduces the concept and function of the bride price,its historical changes,the legal and social attributes of the bride price,as well as the real-life phenomenon of the exorbitant bride price and its formation mechanisms.The bride price originated in the Western Zhou period,then evolved and by the Tang dynasty,the bride price system was well established,and up to the Q ing dynasty the six rites were still followed and the payment of the bride price was still the basis for the establishment of marriage.Although the bride price and the marriage contract have been excluded from national law since New China,the bride price is still an integral part of the civil contract of marriage.In order to resolve the large number of bride price disputes,the Supreme Court,as the official body,has issued judicial interpretations to resolve bride price disputes.Nowadays,the bride price still plays an important role in supporting newlyweds and stabilising marital relationships.Under the inertia of cultural inheritance,the bride price will still exist in people’s lives for a pro-long time,and will tend to be high due to the combination of economic development,gender imbalance,and marriage squeeze.Accordingly,we should face up to the bride price culture.Chapter 3 introduces the current legal provisions for dealing with bride price disputes.Through the selection and analysis of real cases,this thesis analyses the problems encountered in the current judicial practice of bride price repayment disputes,which mainly include:inconsistent criteria for determining the bride price,inconsistent grasp of the subject of litigation,inconsistent criteria for common living and determining hardship,inconsistent starting time for the statute of limitations,and inconsistent criteria for the repayment of bride price.Chapter 4 examines the extra-territorial legal system.In the extraterritorial legal system,the marriage contract system,the damage remuneration claim system,the dower return system,and the statute of limitations system have important implications for the improvement of the dower return system in China.Chapter 5 puts forward suggestions for the improvement of the rules on the return of the bride price.On the basis of the previous analysis and discussion,suggestions are made to improve the rules on the return of the bride price in C hina.To improve the rules on the return of the bride price,the following four basic principles should be followed:(1)the principle of prohibiting the use of marriage to obtain improper benefits;(2)the principle of respecting customs;(3)the principle of gender equality;and(4)the principle of protecting the party who is not at fault.In terms of the construction of specific rules,the author believes that the fundamental reasons for many "disunity" in current judicial practice lie in: first,the absence of the current marriage contract system in China;second,it was caused by solving the problem of the property disputes and tort disputes related to marriage contract which are not distinguished and mixed together.Therefore,on the basis of the existing the rules on the return of the bride price,minor repairs can not fundamentally solve the problem.Therefore,the following aspects should be included in improving the return rules of the bride price in China:(1)the construction of a marriage contract system;(2)the setting up of different rules for the return of the bride price;(3)the establishment of a damage compensation system;(4)the clarification of the statute of limitations for the return of the bride price.