Legal system of retirement has witnessed merely around hundred year's development since the first establishment of its kind in Germany late 19th century. It ensures that retirees would acquire their pensions for basic living and realizes their retirement rights after quitting their jobs,and it is closely connected with legal system of labor and social security in the field of social laws. Generally speaking,legal system of retirement is in pursuit of the ultimate goal of actual fairness and justice with tendentious protection. After years of development,the current legal system of retirement in China has had great achievements,although there are still deficiencies,especially in its systematicness and effectiveness,which require melioration in order to feasibly protect people and improve people's living condition. Based on these conditions,this thesis studies the retirement legislation,making profound analysis on many aspects of legal system of retirement. It is composed of six parts,as follows:
The first chapter is introduction. It firstly points out the subjects of this thesis are constituents of legal system of retirement,which are retirement age,pensions,and retirement right and remedies,and makes clear the purpose of this thesis based on the basic concept of protecting people and improving people's living,by analyzing the constituents of legal system of retirement,to contribute to the theory construction and practice,and to arouse the awareness of problems. In addition,to meet the need of the research,this chapter explains the research method that is from general to specific and other techniques such as semantic analysis,evaluation,and comparative study. Finally,this chapter put forwards the theoretical significance and practical value of this thesis that are focused on the study of legal system of retirement,to impel the development of china's social law and innovation of relative social managing systems.
Chapter two shows some general theories concerning retirement and legal system of retirement. On one hand,it differentiates the basic connotation between retirement and legal system of retirement,and illuminates the relationship of legal system of retirement,labor law system and social security law system,thus lays the foundation of the whole thesis. On the other hand,it argues the basic construction of legal system of retirement. The content of this part includes retirement age,pensions,retirement right and remedies together with legal relation of retirement made up of subject,content and object,focusing on the constitution of legal relation of retirement. The subject of legal relation of retirement is the subject that has rights and obligations by the retirement laws,mainly concerning labor management section,retirement fee payer and pension receiver. The object refers to the target of such rights and obligations,namely the payment of pensions. Legal relation of retirement mainly discusses that retirement is right or obligation which is not identical,and the connotations of retirement rights. Retirement rights belong to social rights whose core is claim to pensions. It aims at realization of equality,and is closely related to rights to live and work. The former arguments lay certain theoretical foundation for the constitution of legal system of retirement.
Chapter three keeps scores of the institutional change of retirement system and the theoretical foundation. It divides the system change into three stages-emergence,establishment and development,together with the changes in theoretical field-going through recession of liberalism and fluctuation of classical nature law,whose establishment is on the basis of the emergence of state intervention and prevalence on sociological law,which has great development with combination laissez-faire with state intervention in economic and development of new nature law in legal theory. These studies would benefit in acquisition of the system's future developing trend and frame,in correspondence with social and economical development.
Chapter four dissertates upon the first constituent of the system,legal establishment of retirement age. Firstly,it starts from the research of the retirement age adjustment and general rules around the world,embodied by rising pension receivers’ age and prolonging the period of time,reducing sexual discrimination and narrowing the gap between male and female,legally eliminating age discrimination,restricting or even banning early retirement. However,as for the abolishment of obliged retirement age,there are still disparities among nations. Secondly,comparing with different legislations regarding retirement age of civil servants,public sector workers and enterprise workers and their origin,this chapter reviews the evolution of statutory retirement age system in China,and proposes the status quo and reasons for irregularities in early retirement and inequality in male and female retirement age. At last,on this basis,it puts forward to several suggestions for the improvement of legal retirement age system,which includes uniformity of male and female retirement age,regulations supervising early retirement,as well as extension of legal retirement age. Meanwhile,the establishment of flexible retirement system should be suspended.
The fifth chapter studies the second constituent of the system,legal protection of pensions. It makes detailed analysis of the related system about legal protection of pensions abroad,including the transition from welfare to contract,some typical payment mode of pensions and the differences in payment manners. Moreover,this chapter studies the status quo in China,and discusses realistic problems on legal protection of pension in China,consisting on lacking of special pension act,being blocked in the transition from old to new pensions system and inequity in“dual pension schemes”and proposes strengthening ways of legal protection of pension,meaning enacting pension act,protecting the bridge and coherence between new and old pension system,applying to the principle of distributive justice and think about the fate of new“dual pension schemes”.
The last chapter discusses the third constituent of legal system of retirement,remedies for retirement right. It first analyzes the current legislative mode in the world,including constitutional mode of retirement right and remedies mode of pension claim right. It then sets forth such problems as the legislative recognition of remedies for retirement right,and legal remedies barrier in claiming pensions together with the reasons. In the end,it puts forward designs of a new system of remedies for retirement right,which means recognizing the justiciability of retirement right,enriching the substantial content of retirement right,determining the essentials of claim rights;emphasizing the importance of mediator and discretion of the judges,so as to perfect the safeguard and remedy mechanisms of retirement right.
After the above analysis,we will come to a conclusion that legal system of retirement requires profound improvement,which is not only the need of social law development,but also the inevitable choice to protect people and meliorate people's living condition,as well as to promote the innovation of social management in the new era.
Key words:Retirement;Legal system of retirement;Retirement age;Pensions;Retirement right;Legal remedy