Before the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Application of Law in Foreign-related Civil Relations was promulgated on Oct. 28
th
, 2010, there wasn’t a special law regulating the conflict of laws in mainland China. Back then, the conflict of laws was dispersed in different laws, such as Marriage Law, Contract Law, Tort Law etc. This law not only has adopted all the terms in relation to conflict of laws in different laws and categorized them under different chapters, but also has revised and refined them.
Taking the statue in relation to the conflict of laws in General Principles of Civil Law as an example, Article147 of such law simply stipulates that the marriage of a citizen of the People’s Republic of China to a foreigner shall be bound by the law of the place where they get married. It means the applicable law governing the validity of such marriage should be the law where the marriage is registered. In such case, to determine the validity of such marriage, we can only refer to the law of the jurisdiction where the marriage is registered. However in the Law of the PRC on Application of Law in Foreign-related Civil Relations, Article 21 has changed it into “Conditions for marriage shall be governed by laws of the jurisdiction where concerned parties both have residence”. It means to determine the validity of such marriage, the first choice would be the law of the jurisdiction where both parties have residence in, instead of the law of the jurisdiction where the marriage is registered.
For the conflict of laws involving foreign-related civil contracts, the new law has also made revision. We would make further explanations in the following articles.