China plans new cooling-off rules to delay divorces as more marriages break down
Lawmakers consider changes to civil marriage code aimed at encouraging couples to stay together
A “cooling off” period could be required for splitting couples in a bid to tackle China’s soaring divorce rate.
The proposal, to make couples filing for divorce wait for one month before their request can be processed, is one of a number of changes included in a new draft of the Civil Code submitted to the National People’s Congress on Monday.
The new Civil Code, due to come into effect in 2020, is intended to cover all aspects of private life, including adoption, inheritance and contracts, as well as marriage.
The draft code includes significant modifications to existing marriage and adoption laws, in particular the removal of clauses on family planning.
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The one-month cooling period would give couples the opportunity to withdraw their divorce application from authorities at any point, and was drafted in response to China’s shifting policy on birth restrictions, according to Zhou Kai, a lawyer at Jiangsu Tianzhe law firm, based in Nanjing in eastern China.