•Compared with the old Marriage Law, the revised Marriage Law adds the "invalid marriage" and "revocable marriage" systems and establishes the principle of fault compensation. The General Provisions of the revised Marriage Law prescribes the mutual loyalty and respect between the couple in addition to the prohibition of family violence as set out therein.

Moreover, the revised Marriage Law sets forth the definitive provisions of mutual property system, individual property system as well as the agreed property system, which has made greater progress than the original Marriage Law. In the meantime, on the subject of divorce that people are more concerned with, in respect of the essential requirement for divorce that mutual affection no longer exists, more operatible and detailed provisions are laid down. For example, it is explicitly provided that bigamy or cohabitation with others by someone with spouse is one of the situations under which divorce shall be approved where mediation fails. It is also noteworthy that the revised Marriage Law has come into effect since April 28, 2001.

----George Wang