Research On The Right Of Claim For Return Of Betrothal Gifts

Betrothal gifts have a history of thousands of years in China.Betrothal gifts have the meaning of appointment as an agreement since ancient times.Betrothal gifts first existed in Confucian rites and laws,and later were absorbed by national laws.Then,betrothal gifts existed because of the fact that the law learned from the West and retreated from the perspective of law and became a custom.Now,it is due to the interpretation of several issues on the application of the marriage law(2).It's back on the stage of law.Betrothal gifts are still popular among the people.Although the contents have changed,the meaning of engagement as an agreement has never changed.As a social fact with a long history,betrothal gifts must have its reasonability and legitimacy.Betrothal gift is a folk custom with Chinese historical and cultural significance.After the founding of new China,the marriage law of the people's Republic of China has been revised several times,and the civil code of the people's Republic of China was issued in 2020,but the provisions on engagement and betrothal gifts have never appeared in the enacted law.In China,the cause of the betrothal dispute is attributed to the property dispute of engagement.The court's judgment basis is the judicial interpretation(2)of the marriage law.The judicial interpretation divides the betrothal property dispute into two categories.The betrothal payment is regarded as a gift with marriage conditions.If the conditions are not realized,it will form a debt of unjust enrichment.The male is the creditor and the female is the debtor and has the obligation to return the bride price to the male.This is obviously an attempt to solve China's problems with western laws,ignoring the cultural and historical significance of betrothal gifts,which is different from ordinary property,leading to the disconnection between law and folk customs and history.The author have collected a large number of disputes about the return of the betrothal gifts from Official account,China's cyber source,court official We Chat Public and other network resources.This paper focuses on the subjects of the dispute,including the scope of the identification,and whether the suit is applicable.30 typical cases are selected from the judicial cases.Through the typological analysis,find the focus of the dispute,summarize the problems in the application of the judicial interpretation of the marriage law(2)in judicial practice.From the perspective of rights,this paper explores the problem of betrothal gifts return,reexamines the claim right of betrothal gifts return on the basis of folk customs,and studies the subject,object,execute requirements and limitation of action.The structure of this paper is divided into four parts: the subject,the object,the requirements of execute and the limitation of action of the right to claim the return of betrothal gifts.The problems reflected in typical cases,the provisions of current laws and regulations,the relevant academic disputes,and the author's views are studied from four levels.It is believed that the subject of the claim for the return of betrothal gifts should take the actual payment of betrothal gifts as the standard and each person with the actual payment of betrothal gifts can be the subject of the claim for the return of betrothal gifts;the object of the claim for the return of betrothal gifts,that is,the identification of betrothal gifts,is based on the habits generally accepted by the local people,respecting the customs and the identification of the two parties;the obligee can have the right to claim the return of betrothal gifts under the circumstances,such as,the non-defaulting party,no fault,rescission or divorce of the engagement,not living together or living together for a short time,and the betrothal gifts are not completely consumed during the living together.The limitation of action should be applicable to the claim for the return of betrothal gifts.The starting point of limitation of action varies according to different situations.The period of limitation of action is three years from the date of the right of claim.