The Latest Developments of Guardianship Legal Issue in China

Abstract

The latest developments of China's guardianship legal issues shall include two important laws--the GPCL and the Conflicts Act. The GPCL emphasizes the principle of being in favor of the interests of wards, respects the right of selfdetermination of the wards, adds 3 forms of guardianship, clarifies the duties of guardian. Article 30 of the Conflicts Act has four obvious deficiencies, even though it stipulates the application of guardianship and emphasizes the protection of the interests of the ward. Foreign-related guardianship cases in Chinese courts frequently present four characteristics: foreign element is subject, guardianship is about minors, using common procedures, and prefer using Chinese law. These characteristics also reflect the three shortcomings of the application of law. On the basis of the above analysis, we put forward four improvement suggestions from the substantive law perspective, and introduce five application methods from the conflict law perspective.