Family Law: A Comparative Study of Chinese and French Law

The concept of Family as an integral unit of the society has evolved over the years due to several reasons. This changing and complex face of family has had many implications on the laws both in China and in France.

Hence, we conduct a comparative study to analyze the system of family laws in both these countries.

The various questions we address in order to deepen our understanding of family laws can be broadly classified into: the couple and the filiation..

As for the couple, we address many questions related not only to the formation of the various modalities of the union but also about their dissolution. We find that the diverse articles on each union brought a system which is more complete in France than in China.

With respect to filiation, we distinguish in particular between the filiation bound by blood and that bound by adoption. The ignorance of the mode of establishment of the filiation results in a big gap in the Chinese law. Besides, the basic question of how to adopt a child, the conditions to be respected and the procedures to be finished, the effects stemming from the adoption are also the questions we explore, compare and attempt to solve in this thesis..

Besides the several principal points on the family law, we also try to compare and understand the different views/perspectives of these two countries by looking into some other related issues such as the maternity for others, the fictive marriages, etc., as well as how the two countries deal with such matters.

Finally, we try to explain why the legal system differs in France and in China and discuss the directions for future research