Fiduciary Principles in Chinese Family Law

The existing literature on fiduciary law focuses primarily on commercial settings,and fiduciary principles in the area of family law have seldom been considered.This essay sheds light on the fiduciary principles in Chinese family law.There is a set of classic fiduciary duty rules under Chinese family law,such as conflict-of-interest rules and remedies for fraudulent transfers.There are also two special sets of rules that might be considered candidates for traditional fiduciary principles in family law,namely the rules on property distribution in a divorce and the rules on property management for different family members.Moreover,the duty of loyalty in Chinese family law,as well as in many other civil law jurisdictions,is much broader in scope than the traditional duty of loyalty under the common law.This broad duty of loyalty includes the duty of sexual fidelity,the duty of notification about certain sexual activities of one spouse during or even before marriage,and the duty of support between family members.This difference may go back to the historical distinction between law and equity,as well as the logical appropriateness of a broad understanding of the term“loyalty.”