Frequency,timing and intensity of remarriage in 19th century Flanders

The article addresses the belief that the Early Modern period and the early 19th century were characterized by “many” remarriages. The confusion in the analysis, however, between proportion and intensity has led much research down the wrong track. The evolution in remarriage intensity and in some other sociodemographic remarriage characteristics was measured for the period 1800–1913 in Leuven, Aalst, and Bierbeek—three areas with different socioeconomic structures and cultural climates. Comparison of the age-specific ratios shows that the remarriage probability of widowed people was often lower than first-marriage probability of those not previously married, even in the first half of the 19th century. In so far as our data are representative of the Early Modern period, the claim that “many” remarriages took place then must be put into perspective. In fact—with the exception of young widowers—fewer remarriages than first marriages often occurred. The proportion of remarriages fell from 20–25% in the first half of the 19th century to 10–15% by the end of the century. The most frequently occurring remarriage type was that between a widower and an unmarried woman; the least common was between a widower and a widow. An additional cultural factor was that from approximately the mid-19th century on, first marriage was so central to the development of a private social environment and was so highly valued that a watered-down version, in the form of remarriage, was held in low esteem and even rejected.     

新生代农民工婚姻家庭研究的理论与前瞻

有序推进农业转移人口市民化是当前的社会目标,也是解决好"三农"问题的重要方向。分析新生代农民工的婚姻家庭问题可以找到市民化的可能突破点。由于社会流动、婚姻挤压、双重边缘人的身份尴尬、婚姻策略的盲目调整等方面的原因,新生代农民工婚姻家庭表现出传统与现代的融合特性,丰富了婚姻内涵的同时又带来了很多的社会管理难题。因而以婚姻家庭为突破口,对新生代农民工进行分层化、专门化研究,探索在新型城镇化和市民化的进程中如何缓解成婚难问题,改变婚姻迁移循环式流动的窘境,减轻抚幼赡老维持家庭的经济压力,是当前新生代农民工研究的重要内容。     

事实婚姻的立法冲突及解决

事实婚姻不仅是婚姻法的调整对象,也是刑法认定重婚罪的重要基础。在法律规则和司法解释的具体展开上,刑法和婚姻法基于不同的立场从而有所不同,并最终导致在重婚罪的认定上产生冲突。刑法领域内的事实婚姻有其独特的含义,刑法领域内事实婚姻的推定有效和认定无效不同于婚姻法领域内的事实婚姻有效与无效,具有重婚罪构成要件的作用和意义。尊重多元的情感生活方式,公法和私法的融合与重整,都可以为事实婚姻在刑法和婚姻法上的冲突提供解决方案。     

评完善我国的无效婚姻制度——兼议修改后的《婚姻法》

无效婚姻是现实生活中较为普遍的一种社会现象 ,同时也是一种违法的民事关系。本文通过对无效婚姻原因的分析和各国无效婚姻制度的比较 ,结合修改后的《婚姻法》关于无效婚姻的规定 ,提出了进一步完善该制度的构想。     

Gender,Culture and the Law: Approaches to ‘Honour Crimes’ in the UK

This article examines the debate on whether to analyse ‘honour crimes’ as gender-based violence, or as cultural tradition, and the effects of either stance on protection from and prevention of these crimes. In particular, the article argues that the categorisation of honour-related violence as primarily cultural ignores its position within the wider spectrum of gender violence, and may result in a number of unfortunate side-effects, including lesser protection of the rights of women within minority communities, and the stigmatisation of those communities. At the same time it is problematic to completely dismiss any cultural aspects of violence against women, and a nuanced approach is required which carefully balances the benefits and detriments of taking cultural factors into account. The article examines the issues within the context of the legal response to cases involving honour-related violence, arguing that although the judiciary has in a number of cases inclined towards viewing ‘honour’ as primarily cultural rather than patriarchal, in some cases they have begun to take a more gender-based or ‘mature multiculturalism’ approach.

A history of sex and the state in Southeast Asia: class,intimacy and invisibility

This essay offers a history of international marriages that questions the definition of marriage and what it meant to belong, as a legal subject or citizen, to a colonial state in Southeast Asia. European imperial states deployed monogamous marriage alongside other weapons of empire as a justification for intervention into Southeast Asian societies. With monogamous marriage came also European notions of belonging that traced surnames and legal subject status (later citizenship) via husbands and fathers. The ramifications for individuals in international marriages between Asian women and European men are well known. However, the vast majority of ‘international marriages’ were not those between colonial Europeans and Southeast Asian women, but between Southeast Asian women and lower class Asian men from India and China. Colonial states ignored or failed to register these lower class intra-Asian intimacies because their unions did not threaten colonial rule so long as they ensured a continuous pool of labor and promoted the colonial economy. Unlike recent theories which argue for an omniscient state that penetrates into the personal lives of its populations, this essay maintains that states intensely regulated marriage and belonging for some subjects but not for others. This longstanding unevenness in the management of intimate unions provides a historical context for understanding shifts in the marital regimes of contemporary postcolonial states. Taking a long-term view, the essay asks if recent increases in international marriages might be better understood as spikes rather than as absolute increases resulting from ‘globalization’. A historical framework ties the rise and fall of international marriage to early modern trade patterns, imperialism's labor requirements, war, and the recent demand for labor that has arisen from low birth rates and economic changes. Each of these ‘events’ entailed a large-scale movement of populations which resulted in the development of intimate unions.     

Love,sex and the spaces in-between: Kepri wives and their cross-border husbands

In the Riau Islands of Indonesia significant numbers of women have entered into marriages with men from the nearby countries of Singapore and Malaysia. In many cases, neither spouse migrates after marriage: instead, husband and wife continue to reside in their country of origin. Their close geographical proximity means that the couples can see each other regularly while at the same time taking advantage of the economic opportunities presented by living on different sides of the border. These cross-border marriages challenge the normative model of the nuclear cohabiting couple/family. Our research into the motivations and desires of these cross-border couples living in the Riau borderlands reveals that space and mobility mediate their interactions with the Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian states, thus producing localized accounts of citizenship in which class mobility (rather than physical mobility) becomes the dominant frame through which they view state regulation of marriage and migration. This research challenges the state-centric tendencies in some of the scholarly literature on international and transnational marriage which places overwhelming emphasis on the ability of states to regulate access to citizenship rights. In presenting a view of inconsistent and sometimes incoherent states, we highlight the significant differences between perceptions of state influence and actual state practices in relation to the regulation of international marriages.     

婚姻关系的法理阐释——重读马克思《论离婚法草案》而感发

科学揭示婚姻关系的本质属性是婚姻立法与司法的理论前提。马克思在《论离婚法草案》中指明了婚姻关系乃是世俗社会的伦理关系 ,它的外在表现形式便是家庭这一“伦理实体” ;婚姻法律制度则是婚姻这种基本伦理关系的承认与保护。由婚姻关系的伦理本质所决定 ,关于离婚的立法原则应当以现实社会的普遍伦理价值为标准 ,并具体化为离婚成立的诸种客观条件 ,从而使司法在离婚案件上的功能更多地由立法来承担。     

‘Marrying light’: skin colour,gender and marriage in Jamaica,c. 1918–1980

ABSTRACT

While historians have increasingly examined inter-racial marriage, they have so far paid scant attention to intraracial marriage. This article tries to fill this gap in the scholarship by examining the practice of ‘marrying light’ in Jamaica from c. 1918 to 1980. Based on a wide range of sources, including memoirs and autobiographical fiction, it is particularly concerned with the motives for cross-colour marriage and the ways in which African-Jamaican children learned that ‘marrying light’ was an ideal to aspire to. It shows that colour, gender and class intersected in complex ways in ‘marrying light’ and that in most instances cross-colour marriages in Jamaica, like elsewhere, were a trade-off between one high-ranking variable and another. Due to the limitations of the source material, the article does not fully explore the extent of ‘marrying light’ and the quality of cross-colour marriages.     

独生女的婚恋状况究竟如何?--对现有研究结果的几点思考

现有研究中关于异性别成长、同性别成长、单性别成长的视角具有很好的启发意义。但研究者关于三种性别男性不存在差别现象的理论解释尚不能让人信服;对于独生女与异性别成长女性之间存在显著差异的结果及其理论解释,则有可能因为缺乏对实际存在且与研究假设密切相关的城乡变量、文化程度变量的控制而形成错误。真正导致独生女与另两类女性之间出现差异的原因或许并不是性别,而是城乡背景、文化程度和有无兄弟姐妹。此外,研究者的价值观不应成为对调查结果进行解释的出发点,也不能成为其判断客观现实“是什么”和“为什么”的标准。