675 Transforming Family Law in Post-Deng China:Marriage,Divorce and Reproduction* Michael Palmer ABSTRACT This article considers the principal changes in family law in the People's Republic of China during the post-Deng period.The developments that have occurred during the period of review have been notable for their pace and their contribution to a growing legal sophistication in China's corpus of family law.They expand on a series of major reforms in family law documented in my earlier China Quarterly article.Overall,it is in the area of divorce that the most dramatic changes have taken place in family law over the past decade. This article examines the continuing evolution of family law in the People's Republic of China (PRC).Since the publication in 1995 of an earlier China Quarterly article on post-Mao Chinese family law,the legal framework for family life has been reformed in order,inter alia,to deal with problems encountered with the regulatory system built up in the 1980s and early 1990s, and to respond to changes taking place in Chinese society.Two legislative developments are highly significant.First,the Marriage Law was revised in 2001,2 and greater judicial attention then given to its implementation,especially I thank participants in the conference on“Developments in Chinese Law:the Past Ten Years'"for their helpful comments on the draft version of this article.Responsibility for any remaining errors is mine alone. 1 Michael Palmer,"The re-emergence of family law in post-Mao China:marriage,divorce and reproduction,"in Stanley Lubman(guest ed.),“Law in China Under Reform,"The China Quarterly. No.141(1995),pp.110-34:republished in Stanley B.Lubman (ed.)China's Legal Reforms (Oxford: Oxford University Press,1996),pp.110-34. 2 For details see,for example,Ma Yinan,Hunyin jiating fa xinlun (New Discussions on Marriage and Family Law )(Beijing:Beijing daxue chubanshe,2002);Liu Shuqiang (ed.),Zhonghua renmin gongheguo hunyin fa tiaowen jieshi (Explanation of the Articles in the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China)(Chengdu:Sichuan renmin chubanshe,2001);Yang Xueming and Qu Zhi,Xin "hunyin fa"redian jujiao (Focus on Controversial Issues in the new Marriage Law)(Shenyang:Liaoning huabao chubanshe,2001);Ma Yuan (ed.),Xin hunyin fa ji sifa jishi shiyong zhinan (Practical Guidance on the New Marriage Law and Judicial Interpretations [on Marriage Law])(Beijing:Renmin fayuan chubanshe,2002);Ma Yuan (ed.),Xin hunyin fa:anli pingxi (The New Marriage Law:Case Analysis) (Beijing:Renmin fayuan chubanshe,2002).Within family law circles in China,the debate on the reform of the Marriage Law amendments is regarded as a significant step forward in public participation in the process of law reform.Nevertheless,a number of the more radical suggestions made were rejected and the extent to which the debate was truly free and open must be doubted,given party-state control of the media. CThe China Quarterly,2007 doi:10.1017/50305741007001658
               
  

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