Exploring the Validity of False Marriage Based on the Characteristics of Identity Behavior

Article 146 of the General Provisions of China's Civil Code lists conspiracy to make false statements of intent as an ipso facto cause of invalidity of a legal act, whereas in the Marriage and Family Section, the causes of invalidity of marriage include only three cases, namely, bigamy, marriage between close relatives, and being under the legal age of matrimony. Although Article 17 of the Judicial Interpretation of the Marriage and Family Section (1) denies the invalid causes other than the above three cases, the possibility of the application of Article 146 to false marriage cannot be dismissed only in view of the overarching role of the General Provisions Section, but still needs to be explored. In order to explore this possibility of application, this paper focuses on the differences between identity acts and property acts, takes the unique ethical nature of identity acts, the autonomy of the parties' meaning and the stability of social relations as the basis, advocates the limited application of legal norms to identity acts, analyses the possible impacts of invalidating false marriages, and takes the confrontation of bona fide third parties or the existence of the fact of common life status as the exceptions, which are the most important factors for the invalidation of false marriages. The validity of the hidden act of concealment is judged on the basis of the validity of the pre-existing identity act, in pursuit of the result that has the least impact.