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Author	Dr Ruiping Ye
Organisation/Institution	Victoria University of Wellington
Country	NEW ZEALAND
Panel	Private Law
Title	Fitting a Square Peg in a Round Hole: The application of Chinese culture in parental support cases in New Zealand
Abstract	In the Chinese culture it is common for parents to provide financial support to children when the children purchase a real property before or during marriage. When the young couple break up, the division of the property is often disputed: was the money advanced by the parents a gift, a loan, or an investment (of the parents)? The issue is so prevalent that China’s Supreme People’s Court has issued interpretations to lay down guidelines for resolving such disputes. However, where the young couple reside and purchase property in an overseas jurisdiction, the law of the land applies. This paper will examine a series of New Zealand cases involving parental support for the purchase of property; in those cases Chinese litigants tried to manipulate evidence to suit New Zealand law, while New Zealand courts strived to understand relevant Chinese culture for the purpose of evaluating the evidence. The process resembled fitting a square peg in a round hold, and the outcomes were often problematic. This paper will discuss the different conceptions about family and relationship property in the Chinese culture and under New Zealand law. It will argue that an understanding of the Chinese conception of family and relationship property is essential for doing justice in relationship property cases involving financial support by Chinese parents.
Biography	Dr Ruiping Ye researches in the areas of comparative law, Chinese legal system, law and culture, land law and aboriginal land tenure, and has published extensively on these topics. Her book, The Colonisation and Settlement of Taiwan, 1684-1945: Land Tenure, Law and Qing and Japanese Policies (Routledge, 2018), examines the relationship between legal system, colonial policies and aboriginal land tenure changes from a comparative law perspective. Dr Ye earned her PhD and LLM (Distinction) from Victoria University of Wellington. Dr Ye has been admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand. Before moving to New Zealand, she was qualified to practise law in China and was an in-house legal counsel at a state-owned assets investment corporation in China.