Legal Considerationg On Minors Surname Decisions And Changes

People name one’s children after one’s parents from ancient times. After that, Nameincluding first name and last name, plays an important role in social communication. Thus, it willbe happened in realistic social life, that is, last name of minors decided by the parents as guardiansdue to the limit capacity of them. However, there are a lot of problems appeared. For example, theparents may be unable to agree on what minors’ last name is, and the father or the mother changesthe minors’ last name without authorizing after they divorced, while the other disagree resolutelyand filed for court to regain their children’s original name. In terms of the first dispute, the courtusually takes measures to mediate or persuade party dropped. In the light of the second one, therehave been different solutions, some courts will allow restoring minors’ surname, some courts haveopposite position that shall reject the plaintiff to recover the claims, and some courts thought theyshould respect minors’ decisions because they have partly meaning expression ability. Yet, thesedifferent actions both do harm to the harmony of society and family, and also affects theuniformity of law enforcement as well as legal authority. Therefore, it has more realisticsignificance than any previous era that the establishment of the legal system to protect minors’lastname right of decision and changing. In this paper, I will analyze the minors’ right for decidingand changing their surname on the basis of two cases and evaluating the current laws. It will bedivided into three parts in addition to the preface and epilogue:Part One includes two cases and two issues. One is whether last name of minors should adopttheir father’s or mother’s surname, and another is whether minors’ surname can be changed or notafter divorced.Part Two consists of the history of minors’ surname decisions and changes in China, andevaluation of rules by two current laws, one is "marriage law" and another is "About the people’scourt divorce cases dealing with child support some specific advice”.Part Three provides some suggestions for minors’ last name decisions and changes, such asspecifying minors’ surname selection system, indentifying whether the minors have the decisionright of their surnames, and indicating solutions of minors’ last name decisions and changes,including the children’s best interests as the highest standard of judgment and draw as acomplementary solution.