Abstract: The betrothal gifts, a wedding tradition, has existed for a long time and was a necessary procedure for the conclusion of ancient marriages. This article selects effective judgment documents from areas with a high incidence of disputes over betrothal gift return in the past three years since the implementation of the Civil Code, and combines them with the interpretation of the Book of Marriage and Family of Civil Code on betrothal gifts and betrothal gift return rules. Through sample analysis, we found that there are common problems in judicial application, such as different scope of betrothal gift return, different proportion of betrothal gift return, and lack of standards for identifying the payer's living difficulties. The discrepancy in judgments of the same case harms judicial authority. This article proposes paths for judicial breakthrough from three aspects: clarifying the scope of betrothal gift return, establishing a return proportion system, and establishing a standard for the payer's living difficulties.

Key words: the Civil Code, marriage law, conditional civil legal acts, betrothal gifts, betrothal gift return