Legal marriages are protected by law

Article 1041 of the Civil Code stipulates that marriage and family are protected by the State. Our country has a system of free marriage, monogamy and equality between men and women. Protect the lawful rights and interests of women, minors, the elderly and persons with disabilities.

Legal marriages are protected by law, and the rights and obligations of both parties to a legal marriage are based on the law, which guarantees their enjoyment and realization of their rights, commitment and performance of their obligations. Both men and women are called husband and wife after going through marriage registration procedures and obtaining a marriage certificate, and only those who live together without marriage registration and marriage procedures can only be called cohabiting men and women, and in principle, the degree of protection protected by the relevant provisions of the Civil Code is seriously weaker than that of legally registered couples.

In a legal marriage relationship, both spouses enjoy the following rights and obligations:

1. In a legal conjugal relationship, both husband and wife have the obligation to support each other. When one spouse has no income due to illness or disability and is in difficulty in his or her life, the other spouse has the obligation to provide for care, and his income must be used to bear expenses and must not be ignored. The weaker party may file a lawsuit with the people's court to require the other party to bear the obligation of support. Cohabitants of men and women in illicit marriages do not have this legal right and duty, and both parties are free to abandon the other at any time without the obligation of mutual support.

2. In a legal conjugal relationship, both spouses have the right to inherit each other's inheritance. If one of the legal spouses dies or is declared dead, if the other spouse, as a member of the husband and wife, parents and children, is the heir of the first order, he may inherit his inheritance within his share of the inheritance. However, the man and the woman in the cohabitation relationship do not have the right to inherit, no matter how much inheritance is left by the deceased party, if there is no testamentary inheritance, the other party does not have the right to inherit; of course, the legal inheritance rights enjoyed by their children born out of wedlock are another matter, and they will find an opportunity to discuss it separately later.

3. In the legal relationship between husband and wife, the income obtained by the husband and wife after marriage belongs to the joint property of the husband and wife, and the husband and wife are jointly owned. In the event of a divorce, the parties need to negotiate a division or an equal division. Even if only one spouse works to earn money and the other spouse has no income from household chores at home, in the event of divorce, the husband and wife's common property, such as houses, deposits, joint investments and income, etc., the latter has the right to claim half of the shares in accordance with the law. However, for cohabiting men and women, when breaking up, one party can only claim to take away the personal property or corresponding share that originally belonged to him, and cannot claim rights against the wage income and property of the other party. Of course, the issue of sharing the cost of raising children born out of wedlock is also discussed separately in subsequent articles.

In addition, according to Article 1043 of the Civil Code, husband and wife shall be faithful to each other, respect each other, care for each other, and family members shall respect the elderly and love the young, help each other, and maintain equal, harmonious and civilized marriage and family relations. This is also a legal right and obligation that is not available in non-legal marriages.