A Study On The Jurisprudence Of "the Principles Of International Commercial Contracts"

Globalization of law, along with the rapid development of world economic globalization, has become an inevibable outcome in the course of development of human society, and the unification of international commercial contracts is the most noticeable economic and legal phenomenon of globalization of law. There may be several means to the unification of international commercial contracts, however, the non-legislative means as an imitation of US restatements of contract law has been one of the most successful means, and thus the focus of legal science in both China and abroad. In this connection, the "Principles of International Commercial Contracts" issued by the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) is famed as the most important contribution to the unification of international commercial contracts. The author in this dissertation takes this as the topic and, makes systemetic analysis from philosophic views on this phenomenon, for the purpose to create a frame of jurisprudantial analysis for the unification of internation commercial contracts and push forward the research of jurisprudance on the unification of international commercial contracts.This dissertation has 5 chapters, and the author makes jurisprudantial analysis from different aspects on the Principles of International Commercial Contracts under the background of the present economic and legal globalization.Chapter One is chiefly devoted to the jurisprudential analysis on the economic and legal globalization with the purpose to bring to light its deep causes and historical inevitability. The author in Section 1 does a rethinking on the economic and legal globalization, and points out that The Principles of International Commercial Contracts is an inevitable outcome of the economic and legal globalization. Section 2 of this chapter contains a general suvey of some important economic theories such as economic person, international division of labor, costs and their roles in the unification of international commercial contracts. The author holds in this section that the basic goal of the unification of international commercial contracts is to achieve the maximization of economic efficiency, and that it is only through cooperation that people can exchange what they need and give full play to their respective skills and talents to realize the maximization of economic efficiency. However, people's cooperation must be based on mutual trust, namely, it is only by mutual trust that people can gain their respective expectation interests. In fact, the conclusion of contracts is the most significant means to guarantee the realization of mutual expectation interests, and therefore without the motivation generated by the maximization of economic efficiency , the unification of international commercial contracst would lose its natural resourses and becme meaningless. At the same time, the author conducts a general survey of the historical process of the unification of international commercial contracts and the practices of the "Principle of International Commercial Contracts", so as to make clear the rules of development of the unification of international commercial contracts, and look ahead the prospects for the unification of international commercial contracts.Chapter Two is chiefly dedicated to a research on the idea of liberalism embodied in the Principles of International Commercial Contracts. Section 1 contains a survey on the concept of liberalism and the idea of liberalism in political and economic fields. Section 2 is devoted to an analysis on the expressions of liberalism in the Principles of International Commercial Contracts and its role in the unification of interantional commercial contracts. The author in this chapter holds that legal value of liberalism determines the capacity of parties to contracts as subjects and their rights and obligations, and therefore, the idea of liberalism is the soul of contracts, and contracts are a direct outcome of the value of liberalism, and the existance of free contracts will become meaningless without the supremeness of individual rights orignated in liberalism.Chapter three covers the historical development of the principle of good faith, and a research on the functions of the principle of good faith in the unification of international commercial law and its manifestation in the "Principles of International Commercial Contract". This chapter presents generally the significance of the principle of good faith applied in the "Principle of International Commercial Contracts" in international law: to standardize the transactional activities of the peoples of all the world for the promotion of global economy; and to push forward the development of interntional law. In terms of the historical development of international law, the development of national law normally comes earlier than international law, and what is more noticeable, the United States' law takes a special position in international law as a result of its superpowerful position in the world economy. However, in view of the practical facts of wide application of the principle of good faith in the unification of international commercial law, the principle of good faith has not been applied widely in the US law, but rather popularized in international commercial activities. This fact indicates that nations all over the world need earnestly to govern legally the development of international commerce, and the absorbtion of the essence of civil laws of all nations is an important approach to motivate the legislature of international commerce. In a conclusion, the wide application of the principle of good faith in the unification of international commercial law is helpful to restrict the hegemonism of some economic powers in international commercial law and promote a more just and fair international economic legal system.Chapter four chiefly makes a study on justifiable validity of the "Principles of International Commercial Contracts", and places great emphasis on the features and significance of the justifiable validity of the "Prinicple of International Commercial Contracts" in the unification of international commercial contracts. Section 2 contains an ananlysis on some important theories of contractual validity, and section 3 does a research by comparasion on the characteristics of the Principles of International Commercial Contracts, and makes emphasis on its important position in the unification of international commercial contracts.Chapter five mainly presents an analysis on the sigificance of doctrines of damages of the "Prinicples of International Commercial Contracts" in the unification of international commercial contracts: it meets the requirements of development of international commerce and promotes international transactions, its rule that the party in breach shall take burden of proof is beneficial to the injured party, and it is helpful to urge the party in breach to take the burden of proof, and to settle disputes timely. With regard to emotional damages, this rule can enrich the present system of international commercial contracts, encourage the development of international law, and be advantagous to merchants in international commerce to improve their economic efficiency and to enhance the development of international commerce.