The support obligations of maintenance in Chinese civil law specifications

In our country, the "support obligation" in civil law refers to the life support and assistance of the young relatives (adult children, grandchildren) to the elders (parents, grandparents). In the General Principles and Marriage and Family Editor, the Civil Code established the rules such as the scope of the owner and the obligor of the maintenance person and the conditions for support. From the actual needs of the Elderly's Rights and Interests of the Elderly, the content of the "family support and support" chapter of the "family support and support" has made a comprehensive detailed regulations that meet the national conditions from economic support, life care to spiritual comfort. The two laws are in accordance with each other, and together constitute the legal and regulatory system of my country's relatives and obligations.

The main body of support obligations

The support obligation is based on the specific relatives of the parties according to law. Article 26, paragraph 2, paragraph 2 of the Civil Code stipulates that "adult children have the obligation to support, assist and protect their parents." Article 1067 will be further standardized from the perspective of establishing a request for parental maintenance. Paragraph 2 stipulates that "those who do not fulfill their support obligations and lacks labor ability or difficulties in life, and have the right to request adult children to pay for maintenance."

Adult children who have the obligation to support should have legal parent -child relationships with their supported parents. The doctrine and legislative are divided into two categories of parents and children: First, the relationship between parents and children of natural blood relatives. It is based on the facts of children's birth, including the relationship between parents and children of marriage and children and children of non -marriage. The second is the relationship between parents and children who want to make blood relatives. It is based on legal recognition and artificially set. It is mainly formed by adopting or remarried, including the relationship between parents and children and the relationship between step -parent and children. Article 1071 of the Civil Code of my country Establishs a non -marriage child with the same legal status as the children of marriage and children. It is clear that the adoption has the effect of forming a parent -child relationship between the adopted and the adopted person. It can be seen that the "adult children" in Article 26 of the "Civil Code" include four types of children of marriage and living children, non -marriage children, adoptive children, and step -by -child step -by -parent education.

The grandson is another category of the main body of support obligations established by the "Civil Code" in my country. Article 1074, paragraph 2 of the Civil Code stipulates that "the grandchildren and grandson children who have the ability to have a capable ability have the obligation to support their grandparents and grandparents who have died or have weak children." It can be seen that the grandson is the second supporter. The "grandson and child" here does not explicitly show that the adult grandson and children who are already 18 years old. However, based on the logical relationship between law and the logic of the front and back legal, the grandson and children who bear the obligation to support their grandparents should be adults.

The grandparents and grandchildren are the direct blood relatives of the intergenerational, and in addition to their parents and children, the blood relationship is contacted by the recent direct blood relatives. In order to meet the needs of the aging of the population and fully protect the basic life of the elderly, my country has established the grandchildren's support obligations to the grandparents under certain conditions since the "Marriage Law" in 1980. The law determines that grandson and children are also obligations of support, which can ensure the basic survival of the "weak" in the family, strengthen the function of family pension, but also make up for the lack of social security. Article 14 of the "Protection Law of the Elderly" on "the supporter refers to the children of the elderly and other people who have the obligations of support for maintenance in accordance with the law", and have achieved effective connection with civil legislation.

Content of support obligations

With the improvement of my country's economic and social development and the improvement of people's living standards, relatives support only paying attention to economic offering in the past, and began to pay attention to the living assistance and spiritual comfort of the elders' straight blood relatives. The organic combination of the principles of the "Protection of the Rights of the Elderly" and the "Protection Law of the Elderly" and the organic combination of the content of the maintenance obligations highlight the unique value of relatives supporting relatives under the new development stage in the new development stage.

This can be divided into a narrow sense and broad sense. Narrow maintenance refers to economic support. It is based on Article 106, paragraph 2, paragraph 2 of the Civil Code, and is specifically transformed into a certain amount of maintenance of the right holder to pay a certain amount of maintenance. The broadening of the general sense refers to the "supporter's obligation to perform economic support, life care and spiritual comfort" determined by Article 14, paragraph 1, paragraph 1, paragraph 1 of the Elderly's Rights and Interests of the Elderly. This provision expands the content of support obligations from the material level to the level of daily care and spiritual comfort. The Protection Law of the Elderly's Rights in my country has increased the content of the spiritual maintenance such as "often go home" into a legal obligation. It is the manifestation of the law in response to the development trend of the aging of the population, enhance the support of relatives, and achieve the performance of ensuring the purpose of the elderly's right to survive. Although such judicial referees cannot be enforced, it highlights the values ​​that my country's law adheres to and has the function of urging obligations to fulfill their obligations.

Performance of support obligations

Adult children, grandchildren, and grandparents have personality and statutory support for their parents and grandparents. During the duration of the maintenance relationship, although the law allowed several supporting obligations to be fulfilled through the agreement of the elderly, the implementation of their respective support obligations could not be exempted from the support obligations through the agreement, nor could Divorce, remarry, widowed) ended. Not only that, the performance of support obligations is also compulsory, and no conditions shall be attached. Obligations shall not give up the right to inheritance or other reasons and refuse to fulfill their support obligations.

It can be seen from the provisions of Article 106, paragraph 2, and 1074 of the Civil Code, which can be seen that the occurrence of adult children's obligations to their parents and grandchildren on their grandparents are all conditional. The occurrence of adult children's obligation to support parents must meet two conditions: First, parents must lack labor ability or difficulty in life. The so -called "lack of labor ability" means that parents cannot engage in physical or mental labor due to their elderly, illness, disability and other reasons, and lose their labor ability completely or partially. The so -called "difficult life" means that parents cannot maintain their lives with their own income or property. Parents only need to meet one of the circumstances that meet the requirements of the law for the rights of the rights to support the rights. Therefore, for parents who are not difficult to live but lack the ability of labor, children should still fulfill the obligation to pay for maintenance in accordance with the law. Second, adult children have the ability to support. This requires that adult children not only have the ability to afford economic burden, but also should be a person with complete civil behavior.

As a second -ranking supporting obligor, the grandson and children, when the adult children who support the rights are lacking, Fang fulfilled his support obligations to his grandparents. Therefore, "children have died or their children are unable to support" are the primary conditions for grandson and children as supporting obligations. Secondly, the grandparents have the need for being supported. Although Article 1074, Paragraph 2 of the Civil Code did not explicitly explicitly, the conditions of adult children to support their parents can derive this condition. In the end, grandson and child should be an adult with a burden. This so -called "burden ability" refers to the reason, education, and medical care of the adult grandson to satisfy themselves and the statutory supporters (spouse, minor children, and parents) in the previous order, and the economy of supporting the parents of the ancestors ability. If several grandson and children have the ability to bear the ability, as a supporting obligor of the same setting, according to their economic conditions, they should jointly bear the support obligations to the grandparents.

There are two main types of legislation in mainland law countries and regions: one is to live together. That is to. The second is that the supporter of the maintenance does not live with the right holder, but will support the right holders in a regular payment of maintenance or paying physical, regular visits, and turns care. my country's "Civil Code" does not make clear stipulation on the method of support. In judicial practice, judges usually make judgments to the case according to the demands of the parties and adopt the above two maintenance methods. With the changes in my country's family structure, adult children, grandchildren and children do not live with their parents and grandparents. The most direct way for their parents and grandparents is to regularly pay for support for the supporters. The scope of the maintenance fee is not limited to the living expenses of the supporter, but also other expenses such as medical expenses and nursing expenses. For parents and grandparents who cannot take care of their own life, they should bear the responsibility of taking care of themselves. If they cannot take care of them, they may follow the wishes of the elderly and entrust others or pension institutions to take care of them.

Adult children, grandchildren support parents, and grandparents are not only the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, but also their obligations. The current maintenance system in my country is based on the constitution, the Civil Code is the core, and the protection of the rights and interests of the elderly is supplemented. With the deepening of social development and the aging of population, in the future, the maintenance system in civil law should be parallel with the national pension welfare system and social security system to coordinate the system function of the living security of the elderly.

(The author is a researcher at the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

Source: China Social Science Network-Journal of Social Sciences of China

Author: Xue Ninglan

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