A Study Of The Legal Aspects Of Third Party Acts Of Interference With Marital Relations

The rapid development of today’s society has led to an increase in the number of phenomena such as adultery,bigamy,concubinage and extra-marital online relationships between third parties and spouses that interfere with the marital relationship of others.The mainstream view is that such acts are a serious breach of the spouses’ duty of fidelity and violate the spousal rights of the other spouse,and should be regulated by the divorce damages system in the marriage law.The opposing view is that the intervention of tort law in the field of matrimonial law is a sign of excessive interference of the law with morality.However,the law is the "minimum morality",and in recent years,the increasing number of disputes over third party interference with marital relations has gradually faded out of the boundaries of morality,and there is an urgent need for the law to respond to it.The study found that,firstly,the spousal duty of fidelity is hardly a source of spousal rights,and that spousal rights are still difficult to find a precise place in the current legal system,and that they are "weak claims" and do not have any effect against third parties.Secondly,due to the limitations of the judicial interpretation,the liability for divorce damages is limited to the spouse at fault,requiring the parties to be divorced,and the statutory circumstances are too narrow,covering only two serious cases of "bigamy and cohabitation",with no provision for other acts.Therefore,it is difficult to effectively address the issue of legal liability for third party interference with marital relations in the field of matrimonial law.Based on the empirical study of the relevant cases,it is found that the basis for ruling on such cases in judicial practice is diverse,and the rights and interests of third parties are also very vague.It is also difficult to unify the views of the academic community on the question of whether third party interference with marital relations is regulated by tort law and what the norms of tort claims are.Among them,the mainstream view is that spousal rights,the right to reputation,general personality rights and the right to claim fidelity are the mainstream views.From the perspective of the integration and application of the various parts of the Civil Code,a review of the views of the academic community reveals that the above-mentioned views are hardly appropriate.Article 1001 of the Civil Code,which provides that the protection of personality rights shall apply to the identity rights of natural persons arising from marriage and family relations,makes it possible to link the law of identity(marriage law)with the law of tort,and the "identity interest theory" also provides for the regulation of third parties’ interference with marriage relations.The "identity interest theory" brings a new way of thinking about the regulation of third party interference with marital relations.By examining the justification of tort liability for third-party interference with marital relations and the basis of the claim,we propose a solution for the injured spouse to seek redress in the civil code era,which is feasible and reasonable.It is concluded that the injured spouse can claim moral damages for the infringement of his or her identity interests by the third party in order to hold the third party legally liable in accordance with Articles 112 and 179 of the General Provisions,Articles 995 and1001 of the Personality Rights,and Articles 1165,1168 and 1183 of the Tort Liability of the Civil Code.