The new Marriage Law of China established the agreed marital property system for the first time. The first paragraph of Article 19 of the Marriage Law stipulates: "The husband and wife may agree that the property acquired during the marriage relationship and the pre marital property shall belong to their own, joint, or part of their own, or part of their joint ownership. The agreement shall be in writing. If there is no agreement or the agreement is unclear, the provisions of Articles 17 and 18 of this Law shall apply.". It can be seen that the agreed joint property of husband and wife has the following characteristics:
(1) The universality of the agreed property. It can be personal property before marriage or property acquired after marriage. There are no restrictions on the type of property. In addition to the types of property referred to in Articles 17 and 18 of the Marriage Law, it also includes all property and property rights that can be obtained;
(2) The non specificity of the agreed time. A husband and wife may agree on property before marriage or after marriage. Even the property can be renegotiated. When to make an agreement and whether to make a new agreement depends entirely on the true intention of the couple;
(3) The diversity of agreed forms. That is, it is agreed to be in the form of respective ownership, joint ownership, partial respective ownership, partial joint ownership, etc;
(4) Contractual priority. Here, the national law also adopts the principle of contract priority for the agreement of marital property. That is, if there is a contract, it shall be in accordance with the contract; if there is no contract, it shall be in accordance with the law. Whether it is the joint property of the husband and wife or the personal property of the husband or wife first depends on the intention of the couple;
(5) The agreed property shall be protected by law. The second paragraph of Article 19 of the Marriage Law stipulates that "the agreement between husband and wife on the property acquired during the marriage relationship and the property before marriage shall be binding on both parties". That is, once the property is agreed to be jointly owned by the husband and wife, it has legal effect and cannot be changed at will.
