Impacts of financial crisis on family units in China : the role of family law

This paper shows that the contagion effect brought about by the global financial crisis has given rise to a series of individual and family problems. This result is strongly supported by theoretical and empirical evidence. It also points out that family law in China, despite revisions to it over the past decade or so, appears to be inadequate to address the issues on marriages, among other things. Several approaches for reducing the negative impacts on individuals and family units have been proposed. Firstly, family mediation is found to be useful for stemming the social consequences arising, for instance, from separation or divorce. It is found to be especially useful during an economic crisis. Given the extensiveness of the problems and that even ‘good’ family law has its limitations, broader public policy solutions seem to be warranted.