Saving spouses from becoming loan victims

Since 2004 people have often criticized Article 24 of the Supreme People's Court's judicial interpretation of the Marriage Law, which says debts incurred by one spouse should be repaid jointly by both unless the other spouse can prove the debtor and creditor clearly agreed the loan was for personal use.

On Jan 17, the Supreme People's Court issued another judicial interpretation of the Marriage Law clarifying the division of such kind of debts, which means a spouse not taking the loan may not have to jointly repay it.

For more than 13 years, many people, mostly married women, automatically incurred a debt if their spouse took a loan due to Article 24. This prompted an Article 24 victim, Chen Ling, to contact other victims to form an "anti-Article 24 alliance" covering China's 31 provincial-level regions, in order to safeguard their legal rights.