經濟學人:遺囑有爭議,繼承法修法不積極

In recent weeks China's leaders have been talking up the need to enhance the rule of r aim is to strengthen the Communist Party's grip on power while at the same time ensuring that justice is served more fairly. This may improve thelives of some. Many people complain bitterly that courts often pay more heed tothe whims of officials than to the law. But in the realm of death, it is the law itself that is the problem. The country's statutes on inheritance remain littlechanged from the days when few had any property to bequeath. The rapid emergence in recent years of a large middle-class with complex property claims has been fuelling inheritance disputes. The crudity of the law is making matters worse.

最近幾周，中國各領導人已開始討論加強法治的必要性。他們旨在強化中共的掌權能力，與此同時確保司法更加公正，這可能會使一些人的生活獲得改善。很多人強烈抱怨法院常常關注官員的突發奇想勝於法律本身。但當涉及死亡問題時，法律本身就存在問題。中國的繼承法從少有人有遺產遺贈訂立以來就沒有作過什麼修正。而近年來大批中產階級迅速崛起，其複雜的財產構成加劇了遺產繼承糾紛，而繼承法的不成熟則讓情況變得更糟。

Today's inheritance law was adopted in 1985 when divorce and remarriage were rare and international marriage nearly unknown. Fewowned homes, cars or other valuable property. The law does at least grant menand women equal rights to their kin's estates, but otherwise it is based largely on tradition. It is specific when it comes to handing down "foresttrees, livestock and poultry" but runs out of steam when it comes to new fangled notions such as intellectual property; never mind domain names and digital photographs. A sweeping reference to "other lawful property" is its unhelpful attempt to cover all eventualities. What counts as property? By whose laws? The statute has no answers.

現用的繼承法是1985年通過的，那是個離婚和重婚罕見的年代，而跨國婚姻也近乎是陌生的事物，很少人有房、車或其他有價值的財產。但繼承法至少確保了男女平等的繼承權，否則在很大程度上則是依照傳統進行。繼承法詳述了“林木、牲畜和家禽”此類遺產的繼承細則，但在如知識產權、域名和數碼照片這些新概念方面卻是一片空白。而包羅一切的“其他合法財產”則無法涵蓋所有可能發生的情況。什麼算得上是財產？根據那些法規？繼承法則給不出答案。

Modest changes were approved in 2003, but woollyareas remain such as in procedures for registering wills. This has led to rancorous court cases like one that last month attracted much public involved a disputed will and the embattled surviving family members of a famous calligrapher and his estate worth about 2 billion yuan ($326m).

繼承法於2003年獲得小幅調整，但如立遺囑的程序這些模糊的領域依然存在。這導致了數起如上個月那樣吸引衆人關注的滿懷憤懣的訴訟案件，捲入上月那起訴訟案件的包括遺囑爭議以及遺囑訂立者名書法家的問題纏身的家屬及書法家價值達20億元的財產。

Since the last revisions to the law, society has kept up its blistering pace of change. The divorce rate has risen in each ofthe past ten years. In 2009 divorces outnumbered marriages. Thus there are nowex-spouses and step children among those squabbling over estates. China'sembrace of globalisation means that some assets (and indeed, clamouring relatives) are located in other countries.

自從上次修訂繼承法以來，社會變化的步伐極快。在過去的每個十年中，離婚率均呈上升趨勢，2009年離婚的人次甚至超過了結婚的，這樣前任配偶和繼子女也成了財產糾紛的一份子。中國迎接全球化意味着有些財產（甚至是有異議的親屬）還可能安置在其他的國家。

China's one-child policy has sometimes complicated matters. State media reported on a car crash in 2012 in which both parents died several hours before their sole child, a six-year-old girl. She automatically inherited their assetsin that short interval but had no legal heir herself, meaning the assets wentto the state instead of other kin.

中國的獨生子女政策有時還將問題複雜化了。據國家媒體報道，2012年的一起車禍奪去了一對父母的生命，而他們唯一的年僅6歲的女兒也在數小時後死去。他們的女兒在那短暫的時間裏擁有了繼承權，但由於她沒有合法繼承人，也就意味着她父母的遺產就爲國家所有而不歸其他親屬所有。

At a meeting in October Chinese leaders expressed support for amending the inheritance law (though a long-mooted plan to introduce an inheritance tax still looks far from being put into force: the middle class does not want that). Yang Lixin of Renmin University in Beijing says that despitethis resolve it could still be several years before the law catches up with reality.

在10月份舉辦的一個會議上，中國領導人們表示支持修訂繼承法（雖然長期未決議的遺產稅看起來仍遙不可及：中產階級不願接受）。中國人大的楊立新表示，儘管作出了這個決定，繼承法與實際相符仍需要數年時間才能實現。