Introduction

Family is the very foundation of civil society,and no part of laws and institutions of a country can be of more vital importance to its subjects than those that regulate the manner and conditions of forming,and if necessary,of dissolving,the family.However,out of different historic,cultural and religious backgrounds,family law,as the body of law dealing with marriage,divorce,adoption,child custody and support,and other domestic relation issues,varies considerably from one country to another.What bears particular mentioning is that the discrepancies in the field of family law among different countries are much more conspicuous compared with other fields of law,say,law of obligations.Under such a circumstance,the conflict of laws in this field is,accordingly,more serious.

Pursuant to Chinese scholarship and legislation,there exists no independent branch of law entitled “family law”; therefore,the expression of “family law” is not found in Chinese law,either in legislation or in legal literature.Nevertheless,Chinese law does have the substance that the family law deals with which,in China,falls within the scope of marriage and matrimonial law,and law on succession.In this light,this chapter will analyze the Chinese family law from the perspective of private international law in those aspects,including marriage,divorce and matrimonial causes; succession,however,will be reserved until later chapter.(https://www.daowen.com)

Prior to the Conflicts Act of 2010,Chinese private international law (including the formal legislation and judicial interpretations) was especially underdeveloped in the field of family law which has been criticized by Chinese scholars for the following three reasons.First,among various family issues,the existing Chinese law provided but a few choice-of-law rules for very limited issues such as marriage,divorce,maintenance,adoption and custody,with many important family issues unprovided.Second,the existing provisions were not consistent.Last,some of the existing rules were theoretically flawed and practically troublesome.1 Therefore,Chinese scholars have been expecting with eagerness that China’s first Conflicts Act would establish a systematic and coherent private international law regime of family law.

Against such a background,the Conflicts Act provides an entire chapter,i.e.,Chapter Three,to regulate family relationships,covering a wide range of issues in this area,including marriage,personal and property relation between husband and wife,divorce,personal and property relation between children and parents,adoption,maintenance and custody.Basically speaking,this Chapter is an appropriate response to the fact that more and more such cases are adjudicated by the Chinese People’s Courts and the existing conflict rules were unable to provide an efficient and satisfactory resolution.