Safeguarding the interests and transcending the prejudice of ordinary people

On May 28, 2020, the Civil Code was voted through at the third plenary session of the 19th National People’s Congress. After the adoption, the setting of the “divorce cooling-off period” in the Marriage Life Series has attracted a lot of attention.

Under the current environment, the establishment of a “divorce cooling-off period” has practical significance. As a result, “false divorces” are emerging in an endless stream. In reality, civil and even criminal cases caused by “fake divorces” are on the rise. The “cooling-off period” can suppress the “real troubles” caused by “fake divorces”. Second, the “divorce cooling-off period” can effectively prevent the termination of marriages caused by impulsiveness, reduce the divorce rate, avoid major mistakes caused by impulsiveness, and bring irreparable losses to oneself, the other party, children and others, and effectively safeguard the society, and the general interests of the people. Thirdly, doing so can also allow both parties to review the past, and it is possible to discover each other’s strengths and reconcile at this stage, start to cherish each other, and promote family unity. Finally, what needs to be mentioned is that repeated marriages and divorces are still a waste of public resources, and the setting of a “cooling off period” can also avoid repeated operations and save public expenditures.

However, divorce does not only mean the end of the marriage relationship, but also involves other social issues. Here are two examples: if there are children during the marriage, their upbringing and growth is an exceedingly difficult social issue; Another example is the division and distribution of joint property between husband and wife, which may affect more than just one family (such as the recent Dangdang incident). Therefore, the establishment of a “cooling-off period” can benefit the whole society.

Marriage is a serious matter. Being a husband and wife is not only a testimony of love, but also a lifelong commitment to each other. Nowadays, the phenomenon of “flash marriage” and “flash divorce” of some people emerges one after another, and the use of marriage registration to seek benefits also happens from time to time. It is not advisable to use the sacred marriage as a means, tool and child’s play. The setting of the “cooling-off period” is not only to allow both parties in emotional crisis to reflect on the past, but also to allow lovers to think calmly before becoming a husband and wife, reducing the occurrence of the phenomenon of “today’s red book tomorrow’s green book”.

Throughout the world, the setting of “divorce cooling-off period” is not uncommon. In the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and South Korea, these are measures that have already paid off. In practice, the Suwon District Court in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, tried out the system for half a year, and the cancellation rate of divorce by agreement rose from 6% to 23%. Considering that the marriage rate in China has dropped to 7.2‰ in 2018, but the divorce rate has been as high as 38% (in Heilongjiang, it even reached a shocking 63%), it can be considered that in the current social environment where marriage relationships are treated frivolously, the introduction of “divorce “Cooling-off period” is appropriate and reasonable.

Some people think that the “divorce cooling-off period” will condone the occurrence of domestic violence, because within the 30-day “cooling-off period”, either party can withdraw the divorce application at any time, and can also not go to the civil affairs department to obtain a divorce certificate within 60 days, resulting in Victims are unable to divorce and suffer from domestic violence for a long time. In fact, divorce registration by the civil affairs department is a divorce by agreement. After the two parties reach an agreement, the divorce registration is handled by the civil affairs department. Divorce caused by domestic violence often needs to be completed by filing a lawsuit in the people’s court. For cases caused by domestic violence, the people’s court shall grant divorce. Before and during the lawsuit, the injured party can apply to the court for a personal safety protection order to prevent further violence by the perpetrator.

Some people also pointed out that there was a vote on a certain platform when the draft was announced, and most people did not approve of the establishment of a “divorce cooling-off period”, so the passage of this article is against the will of the people. First of all, it needs to be explained that the highest legislative body in our country is the People’s Congress, and deputies to the People’s Congress are elected openly and fairly in accordance with the law, representing the will of the vast majority of people. But first, the number of users of the platform is only 350 million, accounting for only a quarter of the country’s population, and the number of people who vote is even smaller; It is very likely that they have been guided by incomplete news or wrong conclusions before; the third platform itself is an aggregation of a type of users, and the data of a single platform is often one-sided. Therefore, using this kind of data as an argument is completely untenable in itself.

There are also views that there is less and less protection for the female party in laws related to marriage, and divorce is becoming more and more difficult. In essence, the protection of women has never been reduced or absent. Instead, the law conforms to the trend of the times and is gradually de-gendering, truly realizing the equality of men and women in marriage and protecting vulnerable groups in marriage. Practice has proved that during the existence of a marriage relationship, the vulnerable party is not necessarily a woman: when Hunan Province discussed the implementation method of the “Anti-Domestic Violence Law” in 2019, it was proposed that “when encountering domestic violence, women should go to the Women’s Federation, but where should the male commemorates go to?”, and men are also included in the scope of domestic violence protection. At the beginning of the establishment of the country’s marriage system, in order to advocate free love and free marriage, break the bad custom of arranged marriages, and entrust the full power of marriage affairs to individuals, they can marry and divorce at will. However, in the course of decades of implementation, it has also exposed some people’s arbitrariness towards marriage. “Making divorce more difficult” is actually to better protect the freedom of marriage and advocate rational marriage.

The law needs to transcend the prejudices of ordinary people while safeguarding the interests of ordinary people. The “marriage cooling-off period” set in the “Civil Code” this time is a pioneering work in the marriage system. It is not only conducive to maintaining the stable operation of the society, but also conducive to maintaining every marriage relationship that is in danger, and effectively safeguarding everyone’s real-life benefit.