Legal thinking on college students' marriage
Source: China Paper Download Center [06-10-2711:00] Author: Ji Rui Editor: studa20 Abstract: Marriage is the legal right of every citizen, and the current laws in China protect the marriage rights of college students. However, there is no realistic basis for college students to get married, which is not conducive to the smooth completion of their studies. From the perspective of people's all-round development, the marriage rights of college students should be restricted.
Keywords: college students, universities, the right to marry
Can college students get married? From the perspective of marriage law, this is not a problem. Can college students get married? Only the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China has the final say. Article 5 of Chapter 2 of the Marriage Law clearly stipulates: "Marriage must be completely voluntary by both men and women, and neither party may force the other, and no third party may interfere." Article 6 stipulates that "the age of marriage shall not be earlier than 22 for men and 20 for women. Late marriage and late childbearing should be encouraged. " That is to say, a man and a woman, whether they are college students or not, can get married if they want, and there is no marriage law that prohibits marriage. Moreover, the man is 22 years old and the woman is 20 years old, and no third party can interfere. This "any third party" even includes his parents, and of course the university.
So why did the marriage of college students become a problem after the introduction of the new Marriage Registration Ordinance? Why did Shandong University and Wuhan University change their school rules and allow eligible undergraduates to get married and become news? Mainly because for a long time, undergraduates in China have been divorced from the marriage law, and the education authorities and universities absolutely prohibit undergraduates from getting married. It is also because the marriage of undergraduates does bring a series of problems. We believe that we must fully respect the dignity and authority of the law and the autonomy of universities on the premise of fully considering the all-round development of people.
First, the law allows college students to get married.
Legally, college students have the right to get married, and the free will of this subject has been recognized by the state. It has legitimacy and is embodied as a universal right. Any violation of it is not only an infringement of the subject's will, but also a manifestation of the state's coercive power. This point has been fully reflected in the laws of our country. (Note 1) As the "guarantee" of citizens' rights, Article 49 of Chapter II "Basic Rights and Duties of Citizens" clearly stipulates that "it is forbidden to destroy the freedom of marriage", and citizens' marriage rights are sacred and inviolable. From the constitutional point of view, there is no doubt that college students can freely enter into marriage according to their own wishes. However, the marriage right established by the Constitution is only a principle, which cannot actually adjust the marriage relationship of citizens, and needs to be implemented through specific departmental laws. Marriage Law, as a basic law dealing with marriage relations in the civil field, further refines citizens' right to marry, stipulating that both men and women are registered by the marriage registration authority and reach the legal age for marriage, and if there is no law prohibiting marriage, it is legal marriage. From the legislative point of view, legislators did not consider any restrictions on college students' marriage when formulating the marriage law. College students can freely exercise their right to marry, which is a manifestation of mutual autonomy. Just like a contract signed between the parties, as long as it does not violate the law, the state will confirm that no third party can interfere. Kant, a German sage, once compared marriage to a contract for men and women to use each other's sexual organs. Of course, we believe that marriage is also a very important social relationship between men and women based on the combination of the two sexes. In this case, why has the new Marriage Registration Ordinance attracted the attention of the whole society?
An important reason is that in the original Marriage Registration Ordinance implemented by 1994, citizens mainly needed ID cards, household registration books and company letters of introduction, but after the implementation of the new Marriage Registration Ordinance, the requirement for company letters of introduction was cancelled. What does this mean? Submit a letter of introduction to get married, that is, ask the citizen's unit (or local neighborhood Committee) to show the citizen's marital status certificate. College students who want to get married in a foreign land must apply to their school and obtain the unmarried certificate issued by their school before they can register for marriage. In practice, this has become a pre-procedure for college students to get married. Schools can review and control students' marriage rights through this pre-procedure, and as a means to prohibit college students from getting married. This kind of system design skillfully turns the substantive appeal of marriage parties into a procedural request without power support, and the regulation of rights essentially means that rights are despised or eliminated. (Note 2) For college students who plan to get married, this unmarried certificate becomes an invisible restriction and is insurmountable. Once the legal requirement of letter of introduction is cancelled, the school will lose control of students' marriage right to a certain extent, and can only directly face the facts that have happened, which will bring negative and negative effects to the normal management and teaching of the school. What worries the education administrative departments and schools even more is that once college students are combined, they will not be able to bear all kinds of problems brought by the world of two people, and will not be able to realize their right to seek knowledge well, delay their studies and affect their future. Therefore, due to the changes in the new Marriage Registration Ordinance, the school is actually caught in an embarrassing and dilemma. On the one hand, the law does not explicitly prohibit college students from getting married; On the other hand, college students' marriage is obviously not conducive to their own development, which will do more harm than good, and will also have a negative impact on school work.
As a corporate body, universities can freely manage their internal affairs and accept external interference and domination to a minimum (Note 3). This right of independent management has been reflected in the current laws and regulations. Paragraph 1 of Article 28 of the Education Law states that universities have the right to manage independently according to regulations, and Article 43 stipulates that educatees should abide by the management system of their universities or other educational institutions. Article 1 1 of the Higher Education Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) also stipulates that institutions of higher learning should run their own schools according to law and practice democratic management. As a public legal person, colleges and universities hold the sword of self-management, and what they can do in the face of college students' marriage is to control it through punishment afterwards. Article 30 of 1990 "Regulations on the Management of Students in Colleges and Universities" promulgated by the former State Education Commission has made specific provisions on this, pointing out that "if a student fails to go through the formalities of dropping out of school and gets married, it will be treated as dropping out of school", and Article 33 emphasizes that "students who cancel their school status or drop out of school may not apply for resumption of study." It should be said that the administrative organs delegated the power of how to deal with the marriage problems of college students to colleges and universities. On this issue, schools can make their own rules, make their own judgments and make their own decisions. In this regard, the general attitude of university management towards college students' marriage is to ensure the realization of their right to education and knowledge at the expense of limiting their right to marry. Judging from China's current social development and specific national conditions, this practice is also reasonable. From the perspective of students' interests, society and parents basically agree and acquiesce.
The problem now is that colleges and universities have the legal power to deal with the marriage of college students, but in a modern society ruled by law based on individual rights (Note 4)(P248), this power conflicts with the legal marriage rights enjoyed by college students. From the perspective of legal rank, the legal basis for prohibiting undergraduates from getting married in colleges and universities is the Regulations on the Management of Students in Ordinary Colleges and Universities, which itself is only a departmental regulation formulated by the former State Education Commission, and its legal effect is not enough to counter the civil marriage laws formulated by the National People's Congress, People's Republic of China (PRC) and China. Moreover, when we re-examine the legislative body of the Regulations on the Management of Students in Colleges and Universities, it is not difficult to find that the former State Education Commission (Ministry of Education), as a functional department of the State Council, has no right to make any restrictions on whether college students can get married when formulating the regulations, and Article 30 of the regulations obviously violates the principle of legal reservation. The right to marry should belong to the basic rights of citizens in Chapter II of the Constitution. According to Article 8 of the Legislative Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), only the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee can restrict this right. The behavior of the former State Education Commission is a typical ultra vires legislation, and this provision should be regarded as invalid.
From the above discussion, we have come to a logically contradictory conclusion. The law does not prohibit college students from getting married, but it is reasonable for colleges and universities to prohibit college students from getting married although it violates the law.
Second, college students should not get married.
Marx once made a very vivid metaphor about marriage. He pointed out that a person can't do anything, and if he wants to spend his life happily, only two people can combine, because half a ball can't roll up. Therefore, the important task of every adult is to find the other half that matches him. Indeed, marriage is an important pillar of life. Without it, it is not a perfect life. However, students' first duty is to study. College students are in the most important stage of their lives, which is the golden season for success. They should grasp it well and lay a solid foundation for their study in their youth, so as to achieve a career and become people who are beneficial to the country and society. For college students, struggle is fundamental; On the contrary, marriage and love will affect learning. In the precious period of life, wasting good time in the flowers and indulging in tenderness will not only waste time, people and money, but also cause mental troubles, and also lose the sense of responsibility that college students should have, which will inevitably affect their studies. So, how should college students correctly handle the relationship between their studies and marriage? The correct answer can only be that one's emotions should be subordinate to one's own career (study). If you are divorced from your own career (study), marriage and love will become small and pale, losing fresh strength. As Bacon said, "All truly great people, whether ancient or modern, as long as their fame is forever engraved in human memory, are not crazy because of love, because great causes suppress this feeling of weakness." (Note 5) (page 56)
Man is the only rational existence, but rationality is not everything to man. Many irrational factors such as human emotion, will, desire and even group unconsciousness drive human behavior all the time. As long as it is properly guided and controlled, it will complement human reason and become a powerful force to promote social development. On the contrary, it will be like a runaway horse, and a river will burst its banks, causing unexpected disasters. (Note 6) (P3) As the embodiment of human lust, whether marriage is rational or not has a profound impact on human development and activities as a historical subject, which is related to whether people can actively understand and transform nature, society and themselves, and realize human essential strength and all-round development.
The ultimate goal of human social progress is to realize the free and all-round development of human beings. Marx once pointed out: "The duty, mission and task of anyone is to develop all their abilities in an all-round way." (Note 7) (P66) In the face of profound social changes in contemporary China, how can people achieve all-round and free development? The most important, urgent and urgent thing is to achieve this goal by improving people's quality and further promote social, economic and cultural progress. As the spiritual motivation and intellectual support of social development, college students' success and quality are related to the life and death of the whole nation. College students should make use of the environment created by universities to cultivate talents and create conditions for their all-round, free and all-round development and make unremitting efforts. As a complex social activity, marriage will affect the success of college students in all aspects, which is not in line with the national conditions of China. From the perspective of historical development, it is not conducive to the development of the country and the nation. Then, under the current social and historical background of advocating people's all-round development, how should we deal with the conflict between students' rights and the restriction of marriage in university management?