Marriage And Family Law, Visitation Rights Research

As one of the most important contents of the relationship between parents and children, visitation right is the reasonable extension and definite result of the upbringing right of parents. Playing a great role in children's healthy upgrowth, it is not only one of the rights of divorced parents, but one of the responsibilities of the divorced parents and one of the rights of the children as well. April 2001, the Amendment of Chinese Marriage Law sets the system of visitation right, which serves as a supplement to the legislation blank of the marriage and family law of our country and makes it more complete. Carrying out visitation right under the law prevents and reduces disputes as well as violent events arising from visitation affairs, therefore engenders great influence on the children's growth, the family's harmony and the social development. Although it has been five years since the enforcement of the marriage law amendment, there are still some embarrassments in the field of judicial practice, such as inconsistency in the execution of the law, even shortage of relevant legal prescriptions for reference. In this article, the characters of visitation right are analyzed from the angles of parental power and guardianship; grandparents are suggested to be included into the subjects of visiting rights under certain circumstance. In addition, the proposition is put forward that the principle of priority of children's maximum benefits should be introduced; appropriate visitation modes and legislated conditions for visitation abeyance should be established to prevent abuse of the visitation right, according to the need of judicial practice and the coherence with the spirits of other countries'legislation. Furthermore, existed problems during the hearing and execution of the visitation right disputes are analyzed and relevant solutions are proposed, in the hope that the system of visitation right would be improved to such an extent that the juvenile's healthy growth could be guaranteed more efficiently.