A Preliminary Study On The Compensation For Matrimonial Tort

Our social reality is that some marriages and families are the harmonious and happy harbor, but some are the places which shelter evil people and practices. Many infringement damages often occur in the wedding, such as the mistreatment, abandonment, domestic violence, cohabitation of a married person with any third party and non-performance of the duty to support and assist each other between wife and husband, ect. It is the fact that we have to face. To a certain degree, the compensation system for damage of divorce in The Marriage Law of People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Marriage Law) protects the interests of the party who is damaged in the marriage. But with the development of the social situation, the compensation system can not protect legitimate rights and interests for the party who has been damaged in the marriage but still wouldn’t like to divorce. Therefore, it is essential to draw lessons from other countries. The establishment of the compensation system for matrimonial tort has been a very important research topic.Nowadays, the compensation system for matrimonial tort has been established in our Marriage Law, and the matrimonial property system has also been improved. All of these lay a foundation for the regression of the Marriage Law to the Civil Law. But in terms of the integrity and scientificalness of legal system, our Marriage Law, especially legal regulations on the compensation system for infringement damages, is still not perfect. Our compensation system is only one aspect, and its applicable conditions and scope have certain limitations. It is a little narrow and harsh, which is only one kind of remedial measures in the specific situation. In most situations, because of the complexity, the variability and the particularity in the real marriage and family, not all the injured parties choose the divorce to protect their legal interests for its higher cost. Yet not asking for the divorce doesn’t represent the injured party is willing to give up the right of claim of obtaining the civil remedy. In real life, more and more litigations of the harm damages in the wedding become the realistic foundation to establish the compensation system. Therefore, the establishment of the compensation system for matrimonial tort has important significance for perfecting our marriage law, protecting the legal interests spouse, especially the weaken party-women. It is also important for establishing the civilized and harmonious marriage and family relationship, and setting the basic civil law that the party who makes damages has the responsibility and must compensate. The infringement in the wedding is one kind of infringements. If this infringement exists, the party shall be liable for damages. Thus, it is necessary to establish the compensation system for matrimonial tort in our country.In our Marriage Law, the civil relief system on the infringement in the wedding is distempered and imperfect. The major reason is that the law theory is ill-prepared and the people’s thoughts and the basic condition of social ethics don’t exist. But, the equal protection of the personal right should be the responsibility of the Marriage Law. In China, the independent personality of citizens is becoming more and more growing. The protection of the independent personality has become the people’s common appeal. With the development of our legal research, the perfection of the law, and the strength of the law’s construction, the condition of establishing the compensation system for infringement damages in the duration of marital relationship has become mature. It has been the solid foundation to expedite the compensation system.In our country, we are discussing to make a landmark corpus of civil law. It provides a good law’s situation for the establishment and perfection of the compensation system for matrimonial tort. Now, the problem, which we urgently need to solve at the legislative level, is how to establish and perfect the compensation system which conforms to our Chinese practice. This system should give full play to the morality’s spontaneous adjustment function to the marriage and family relations; on the other hand, it should also force to protect the civil right of the couple. This is beneficial to protect the legal interests of citizens and also promote the harmony and stability of the marriage and family relations. Given this, the pragmatic research and discussion become very important.