The New Conflicts Rules for Family and Inheritance Matters in China

On April 1 2011, the new private international law code "Act on the Application of Law of Foreign-related Relations" came into effect in China. It is in the family and inheritance areas that the new act introduced the most changes. Compared with the repealed provisions, the new provisions on the family and inheritance matters incorporated some new developments of private international law, e.g., the party autonomy adopted in the abscission of matrimonial property, the principle of protecting the weaker party in parent-child relation, the test of alternative connecting factors for determining the validity of wills. However, there are still some loopholes or ambiguities in the new provisions which need clarification and interpretation from the Supreme People's Court in China in the future practice