Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2004
Abstract
In April 2001, the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC), China's highest legislative body, passed the long-debated and much awaited amendments to the Marriage Law on the closing day of its twenty-first session. As stated by one PRC commentator, "In the 50 years since the founding of the New China, there has not been any law that has caused such a widespread concern for ordinary people."'
Even though the recent revisions to the marriage laws have been hailed as some of the most significant and positive changes in family law in China, thus far no empirical evaluation of the laws' effectiveness in actual practice has been conducted. Our article raises some questions as to the practical effect these revisions will have on women's rights.
We maintain that while the revisions were intended to promote a more equitable system of property distribution for women at divorce and to address violence against women in the family, in reality, women will face major drawbacks in the implementation of these provisions of the law. Unless the gaps in the law and certain obstacles to the implementation of these laws are addressed, the revisions will remain largely symbolic. In our conclusion, we suggest recommendations that will help bring the Marriage Law in compliance with the international standards set out in the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), as well as help deliver on the promise of the revisions to the Marriage Law.
Keywords
Chinese family law, women's equality, sex discrimination, divorce, property rights, domestic violence, enforcement
Publication Title
Texas Journal of Women & Law
Repository Citation
Ogletree, Charles J. Jr. and de Silva de Alwis, Rangita, "The Recently Revised Marriage Law of China: The Promise and the Reality" (2004). All Faculty Scholarship. 1709.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/1709
Included in
Asian Studies Commons, Chinese Studies Commons, Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Courts Commons, Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence Commons, Family Law Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Human Rights Law Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Law and Society Commons, Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons, Legal Remedies Commons, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons, Property Law and Real Estate Commons, Public Law and Legal Theory Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Women's Studies Commons
Publication Citation
13 Tex. J. Women & L. 251 (2004)