南非涉外婚姻关系的法律适用

The Proper Law to Marriages with Foreign Elements in South Africa

作为一个混合法系国家,南非有关婚姻关系的分类却采用了大陆法系国家的做法,将婚姻关系分为婚姻人身关系和婚姻财产关系。在南非国际私法中,涉外婚姻人身关系由相关行为或交易发生时配偶的住所地法支配,而涉外婚姻财产关系的法律适用则取决于双方当事人是否订有婚前合同。在配偶双方之间不存在婚前合同时,婚姻财产关系由婚姻住所地法支配。如果配偶双方立有婚前合同,则婚姻财产关系适用当事人在合同中约定的法律;而婚前合同的形式及实质有效性、婚前合同的解释、当事人缔结婚前合同的能力等方面,则适用其他不同国家的法律。

As a country with mixed legal systems, South Africa has adopted the ways of the countries with continental legal systems in classifying marital relations, dividing marital relations into personal relationship and property relationship between the spouses. According to South Africa’s private international law, the personal relations of the foreign-related marriages are dominated by the related actions or by the laws of the regions where, when the dealings occur, the spouses inhabit, while the proper law to property relations rest with whether the prenuptial contracts are signed or not between the spouses. If the prenuptial contracts not signed between the spouses, the property relations of the marriages should be dominated by the laws of the inhabited regions. However, if they are signed, the laws that are contracted can be proper to the marital property relations. The forms of the prenuptial contracts as well as their initial effectiveness, the interpretation of the prenuptial contracts and the abilities for either party to sign the contracts are all to the applications of the laws of other different countries.