Marriage law a new best-seller
( 2001-06-21 11:59 ) (1 )

A Marriage Law booklet has become a best-seller in the city since the amended law was implemented in April.

Statistics from the Shanghai Women's Federation said more than 20,000 copies of the Marriage Law have so far been bought by groups and individuals.

In a questionnaire over the Internet between netizens and experts, organized by the federation, experts answered 50 questions in an hour and a half, said Cai Lanzhen, an official with the federation.

Most inquiries are related to people whose spouses were cohabiting with someone else, family violence and dividing up family property.

The amended Marriage Law, including six charts and 51 clauses, addresses what many believe to be these problems.

For the first time, the law provides that the offending party should pay compensation to the other side in a divorce.

Family violence and cohabitation with someone other than the spouse are now official violations of the law.

The Marriage Law was issued in 1950 and was amended for the first time in 1980.

"The first amendment was aimed at clearing up confusion in the Marriage Law caused by the 'cultural revolution' (1966-76)," said Zhang Xianyu, professor from the East China University of Politics and Law.

During the political chaos, many marriages were not based on love, but on politics.

Many matches at that time were made between senior intellectuals and people of a poor educational background to pursue a kind of political protection through marriage.

The transformation from a planned economy to a market economy and from a closed society to an open one over the past 20 years has changed people's behaviour.

The increase in cohabitation, divorce, bigamy and concubinage is all evidence of this, according to Zhang.

Enforcing the law will be a huge undertaking, according to experts.

"During the amendment process, many experts raised the same questions about whether a law can efficiently solve family affairs," said Miao Linfeng, senior attorney-at-law of Shanghai Huaxia Law Firm.

Falling out of love was listed as one of the reasons for divorce.

"But what are feelings, what are broken feelings - no one can define that," Miao said.

Miao said she once had a case where the husband eloped with another woman and asked his wife in Shanghai for a divorce.

The court turned him down because his jilted wife was able to produce love letters and gifts from him that she said proved his feelings for her.

Just two months later, the woman asked for a divorce after successfully finding a way to go abroad. Her reason was also broken feelings.

"Can feelings be proof in court?" Miao asked. "How we can judge this by objective standards is still a problem. The law doesn't clarify these points."

Another headache to experts is cohabitation. Illegal cohabitation also lacks adequate definition, they claim.