Personal Property Rights Within Marriage
- Laws
- Vietnam
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Under the Marriage and Family Law, both spouses have the right to their own personal property and common property (MFL, Art. 32).
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Personal property is property that either person owned prior to marriage, property inherited or gifted separately during the marriage period, personal belongings, and jewelry (MFL, Art. 32).
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However, if the personal property has been put to common use and the profits or yields of that property constitute the family’s sole means of livelihood, the disposition of that property must be agreed upon by both spouses (MFL, Art. 33(5)).
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- Ethiopia
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Property possessed prior to marriage, or acquired after marriage by succession or donation remains personal property (FC, Art. 57).
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Property acquired by one of the spouses after marriage is also personal property (presuming that marital property was not used to acquire it) (FC, Art. 58)
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- Vietnam
- Commentary
The provision in the Marriage and Family Law from Vietnam provides some protection for a spouse whose land and property belonged to her spouse before marriage as his separate property. But the provision is very narrow and only applies if it is put to common use and the profits constitute the family’s sole livelihood, and even then the spouse who does not have the rights to the property is only able to have input into its disposition.
Given the custom in most countries of women moving to the husband’s home and land, laws that allow the rights to that land to remain with the husband no matter how much money and effort is shared with his spouse, do not provide women with equal rights to the land they depend on. Some provision should be made for the land to become common property if it is used by both spouses for the benefit of the family or if the non-owning spouse adds value to the property, including through her labor.