Some Solutions to Improve the Legal System of Alimony

It is possible because the development trends have been predicted by current scientific methods. However, in reality, the regulations in legal documents are not clear and consistent. For example, Clause 1, Article 11 of the 2000 Law on Marriage and Family stipulates: "Men and women who do not register their marriage but live together as husband and wife are not recognized by law as husband and wife". Thus, it can be understood that this legal norm does not allow men and women to have a relationship with each other as husband and wife when there is no important legal event - Marriage registration. The legal relationship of men and women in all cases without a marriage registration certificate is an illegal relationship and is not protected by law. On the other hand, Article 147 also clearly states: "Anyone who has a wife or husband and marries or lives together as husband and wife with another person... shall be subject to a warning without detention for up to 1 year or a fine from 3 months to 1 year". However, Resolution No. 35/2000/NQ-QH on the implementation of the 2000 Law on Marriage and Family, Points b and c, Clause 3 stipulates that from January 1, 2003 onwards, in all cases where men and women live together without registering their marriage, they will not be recognized by law as husband and wife. If there is a request for divorce, the Court will accept the case and declare that the couple is not recognized. If there is a request for children and property, the Court will handle it the same as a divorce case. Here, there is clearly a contradiction between the provisions of law. They did not register their marriage, the Court still accepted the case and did not recognize them as husband and wife. In fact, they were not legally married, so why did they declare that they were not recognized as husband and wife? Furthermore, if they were married, they could also be prosecuted for violating the monogamous marriage regime under Article 147 of the 1999 Penal Code.

On the other hand, Article 2, Resolution No. 02/ND-HDTP dated December 23, 2000 of the Supreme People's Court's Council of Judges (on guiding the application of a number of provisions of the 2000 Law on Marriage and Family) stipulates the annulment of illegal marriages.

The law states: In case two parties are separated but not yet divorced, and one party has a marital relationship with another person and then they want to file for divorce, the subsequent marriage will be recognized. This is no different from giving weapons to the enemy and is contrary to Article 11 of the 2000 Law on Marriage and Family. In fact, the courts have also applied the same rule in trying cases.

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Second : The current regulations on procedures for marriage and divorce registration are too simple and easy. To get married, the parties only need to go to the People's Committee of the Commune or Ward to buy a set of documents, fill in all the information and pay the marriage registration fee, then after 7 days they will become legal husband and wife. As for marriage registration with foreign elements, the marriage registration period is 30 days.

Besides, our State has not yet had regulations on a mechanism to strictly inspect and control the organization of weddings.

Organizing a wedding is an important step in a marriage, an important event in a person's life. However, the issue of organizing a wedding in our country is still mainly regulated by customs and practices. In order to manage society by law and build a socialist rule-of-law state, it is thought that the State should also have stricter regulations on inspection and control of wedding organizations. For example, it is necessary to organize a specialized inspection agency for marriage and family. Accordingly, these agencies have the right to check the marriage registration certificates of weddings at restaurants, hotels, and wedding venues. If it is discovered that there is no marriage registration certificate, it is necessary to draw up a record of the penalty. Currently, Decree 87/ND-CP only stipulates that the general authority to sanction administrative violations in the field of marriage and family belongs to the Chairman of the People's Committee at all levels.

Furthermore, the regulations on common property and separate property of spouses are not clearly defined. This leads to many complicated disputes that have to be resolved many times but still do not achieve results.

3.2. Some solutions to improve the legal system of alimony

A modern family is a family that must both preserve, inherit and promote the good traditional values of the Vietnamese family, absorb new family values in a developed society, and overcome the negative manifestations of the market economy and the polarization of rich and poor that are affecting the healthy development of the family. Specifically, the Draft Family Development Strategy from 2004 to 2020 sets out the goal of "gradually building a prosperous, equal, progressive, happy and sustainable family". "In which the goal is to strengthen the family on the basis of inheriting and promoting the good traditional values of the Vietnamese family, selectively absorbing new cultural values of the family in a developed society, implementing small families, exercising the rights and responsibilities of family members, especially towards children, women and the elderly".

Through the above analysis, we can see the importance of the alimony system in particular and the law in general in daily life. Specifically, along with the development and innovation of the country, the family has also changed in structure and function, leading to changes in the relationship between family members compared to the traditional family in the past. However, our current legal system in general and the law on alimony in particular have not yet captured the situations that may occur in modern life. Moreover, it comes from the mechanism of legal adjustment of social relations in the market mechanism under the management of the State according to the socialist orientation. Article 12 of the 1992 Constitution was amended and supplemented

In 2001, it was stated that “The State manages society by law, constantly strengthening the socialist legal system”. To manage society by law, to build a socialist rule of law state of the people, by the people and for the people requires the process of building, organizing and enforcing the law to correctly reflect the laws of social development. In particular, the process of building the law must be able to bring the subjective will of the ruling class in line with the will of the people, correctly reflect the laws of development of social relations in the period of innovation and that must be a synchronous legal system.

In addition, the alimony regime is also the legal basis for the Court to resolve family and marriage cases in general and alimony in particular. In fact, every year the Courts have to resolve a very large number of divorces. According to statistics from the Supreme People's Court, each year the Courts at all levels resolve nearly 50,000 divorce cases, of which the number of cases with children needing alimony accounts for 70%. If the provisions on alimony laws are specific, detailed and reasonable, it will improve the efficiency of adjudication in the Court.

Moreover, stemming from the requirements of international integration, the exchange in all aspects between foreigners and Vietnamese people is increasingly expanding. Marriage relations with foreign elements are increasingly developing. Therefore, cases of alimony with foreign elements will appear more and more. Therefore, to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the parties, our law in general and alimony law must be consistent with Vietnamese reality, international law and practice to ensure that Vietnamese judgments and decisions can be enforced abroad or foreign judgments and decisions can be recognized and enforced in Vietnam conveniently.

The alimony regime in the Law on Marriage and Family prescribes standards for the conduct of subjects in the legal relations of marriage and family, and is a necessary legal basis to thoroughly resolve marriage cases.

and family. Regulations on maintenance directly affect the legitimate rights and interests of subjects of the legal relationship of marriage and family. For children and adults who are sick or disabled and unable to work and have no assets to support themselves to have a stable life, contributing to promoting the development of a fair, civilized and democratic society. That depends largely on the reasonableness of the regulations on maintenance in particular and the legal system in general to meet the tasks in the new period. Based on the study of the maintenance regime, we would like to propose some directions for improvement as follows:

Firstly : We must systematize and codify the legal system in general and the law on alimony in particular. As a legal institution, the legal provisions on alimony have only 13 Articles stipulated in Chapter VI, which is not enough to regulate a large and complex social relationship. For a legal document to have a major regulatory impact on social relations in a certain field, it requires the law in that field to be complete, specific, clear and suitable to the changes of the social relations it regulates. Therefore, in order to contribute to perfecting the alimony regime in the law on marriage and family, it is necessary to amend and supplement a number of provisions to make them more suitable, ensuring the feasibility of the provisions on alimony in current law.

One: It is necessary to add the concept of husband and wife to the 2000 Law on Marriage and Family. Because in reality, the Courts still accept and resolve many cases of "living together as husband and wife" but in fact, legally, they are not husband and wife, because one or both of them are married. This needs to be clearly defined, otherwise people will continue to have relationships with each other as husband and wife and have children, and then the Court will have to "not recognize them as husband and wife" even though in reality they are not husband and wife and resolve

consequences for children. Innocent children suffer from a lack of love and care from one parent. Inevitably, a child's development is more or less negatively affected in terms of personality, intelligence and physical strength. In addition, we need to add a regulation that before marriage, the husband and wife should publicly declare their common property and their separate property. If the property is of great value, both husband and wife must be listed on the ownership certificate to avoid problems when conflicts arise.

Two: It is necessary to add regulations on engagement for a period of time before marriage and separation during the divorce process. Because of the tradition of Vietnamese families, before the wedding, the groom's family must have an engagement ceremony, also known as "engagement". That is, the two families must officially establish a close relationship with each other before holding the wedding. The current law only stipulates that after 07 days from the date of submitting valid documents, the parties will be granted a marriage registration certificate. Because the time is too short, the "love" has not taken root firmly. Not getting to know the partner thoroughly can easily lead to mistakes and the State must handle divorce and suffer very serious consequences after divorce. Although marriage is based on the voluntary love of both men and women. The State and family cannot prohibit them, but they can completely influence and regulate their relationship by regulating a longer marriage process to force the parties to get to know each other more thoroughly before establishing a marriage relationship.

On the other hand, when the marriage cannot continue to exist, the couple's feelings cannot be saved, then they are allowed to divorce but must stipulate a trial period, reasonable reconciliation for the parties to reflect before divorce. Because in reality, the number of reconciliation cases that become divorce cases in court is not small. Therefore, it is necessary to add the separation regime to the Law on Marriage and Family. In fact, in the world, developed countries still stipulate the separation regime to solve the problem of divorce easily.

easier and more effective. For example, in Canada, the family law of June 1, 1986 stipulates that the basis for divorce is that the two parties have lived apart for 1 year.

Third: It is necessary to add a provision that husband and wife have the obligation to support each other to create a legal basis for the obligation of support between husband and wife during marriage.

The situation that leads to the husband and wife having to provide maintenance for each other during the marriage is mainly the case where the husband and wife have had disagreements, so one party has shown signs of avoiding responsibility towards the other party. Current law stipulates that the person who has the obligation to provide maintenance but avoids fulfilling the obligation must provide maintenance. However, in the relationship between husband and wife, the law only stipulates that the husband and wife have the obligation to care for each other, but does not stipulate that the husband and wife have the obligation to support each other, so when one party does not take care of the other, the application of sanctions forcing them to provide maintenance has no legal basis. However, in reality, in general, when the couple's life is still passionate, we see that when the love is still strong, they care for, love, and pay attention to each other's lives little by little, including the obligation to support. Therefore, in order to have a solid legal basis for the obligation of support between husband and wife during marriage, it is necessary to stipulate the obligation of support between husband and wife. Only then will we have a basis for applying sanctions in cases where the husband or wife shows signs of evading responsibility to his or her wife or husband.

Second : Strengthening legal propaganda and education, thereby raising people's legal awareness and improving the quality of judgments and decisions on alimony.

The law is not only a means to institutionalize the Party's policies and guidelines, a means for the State to manage all aspects of social life, but also a means for the people to promote democracy and mastery, to exercise their rights and obligations. The allowance regime regulates behavior.

for subjects participating in the legal relationship of marriage and family in performing the obligation of maintenance, and at the same time, is the basis for resolving disputes about maintenance. The rights and obligations of maintenance between people in family relationships only become reality when the subjects of the legal relationship of marriage and family clearly understand and properly perform the rights and obligations of maintenance. To achieve that, we must constantly strengthen the work of propaganda and legal education to all classes of people. We must make people understand that maintenance is not only an obligation but also a right. When a person falls into difficult circumstances and is unable to support himself, those who have family relationships must have the obligation to provide maintenance in cash or in kind so that he can live. If relatives do not proactively provide maintenance, they have the right to request those people to provide maintenance according to the law. We must also admit that thanks to good legal education and propaganda, the voluntary fulfillment of the obligation to provide support sometimes exceeds the scope of the subject having the obligation to provide support according to the provisions of the law. In reality, there are many cases where aunts, uncles, and paternal grandparents provide support for their grandchildren when they become orphans, and many even take their grandchildren in to raise them even though according to the provisions of the law they do not have the obligation to provide support.

Furthermore, the Civil Procedure Code passed on June 15, 2004 at the 5th session of the 11th National Assembly, effective from January 1, 2005, stipulates temporary emergency measures, including measures to force partial implementation of alimony obligations. This is an important legal basis to protect the rights and interests of those who are unable to support themselves while the Court resolves cases related to alimony. In order for this provision to truly come into practice and become an effective tool to protect the rights of alimony recipients, it is necessary to improve individuals' legal understanding.

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