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Is' online marriage 'a crime of bigamy？
Time:2025-08-28 Views:527
Introduction: Due to her husband getting married and having children online, she felt hurt. In a fit of anger, Ms. Lin from Harbin sued her husband for "bigamy" and demanded emotional compensation. The court believes that according to Chinese law, marriage follows the principle of registration, so "online marriage" that does not meet this statutory requirement does not have the suspicion of bigamy. Based on this, although the court agreed to divorce Ms. Yilin, it rejected her claim for "fault compensation".
Is' online marriage 'a crime of bigamy?
The crime of bigamy refers to the act of marrying someone with a spouse or knowingly marrying someone with a spouse. It includes two aspects: one is "marrying someone else while having a spouse", which refers to a person who is already married and marries someone else during the existence of the marriage relationship; The second refers to "marrying someone who knows they have a spouse", which means marrying someone who has no spouse but knows they have a spouse. The Reply of the Supreme People's Court on How to Determine Bigamy stipulates that bigamy is the act of a married person establishing a marital relationship with a third party. And this act of establishing a marital relationship is one of legal bigamy ("legal marriage"), which refers to a person with a spouse registering their marriage with someone else, that is, registering their marriage with the marriage registration authority. The second is de facto bigamy ("de facto marriage"), which refers to a person with a spouse living together with others in the name of husband and wife. Whether it is legal marriage or factual marriage, it refers to real behavior, not including virtual behavior. Therefore, Ms. Lin's husband does not constitute bigamy.
In this era where the internet is ubiquitous, people's ways of expressing emotions are undergoing disruptive changes: from general online chatting to "online dating", and then to the so-called "online marriage" of "registering" to form a "family" or even "raising children" through the internet. It is truly remarkable. Undoubtedly, all of this is a non real virtual reality, just like Ms. Lin's husband's argument that "it's just a boring pastime online". However, we also see that at least in this matter, Ms. Lin's personal feelings have "caused great mental harm". Therefore, even if the "bigamy crime" cannot be established, the result of divorce still occurs. That is to say, although the "marriage" of "online marriage" is virtual and has no legal basis in reality, the harm it causes may be very real.
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