Study Of Chattel Mortgage System

The chattel mortgage system is an age-old system in civil law. With the establishment of the principles of property publication and statutory real right, possession has become the way of chattel publication and, chattel security is limited to pledge rather than mortgage. However, the traditional line between pledge and mortgage has to be redefined since sheer immovable mortgage could no longer keep up with the booming commodity economy; therefore the issue of chattel mortgage aroused worldwide concern once again. Opinions are divided towards the chattel mortgage system--French and Germany, among other countries of the civil law system, do not acknowledge the chattel mortgage system while most countries of the common law system do, typically the United States, with Japan, Quebec and Taiwan following suit. The chattel mortgage system has been established in China and its application, despite all the domestic controversies, has been extended through the legislation of the Property Law. The writer of this paper holds that chattel mortgage system should be maintained in China, yet the scope of the objects of mortgage must be restrained.As to the objects of mortgage, the writer regards ordinary movables as not applicable for chattel mortgage; as to the application of the system, the writer thinks that mortgage cannot be set on all movables and there should be a rigid restriction on its application. Such restrictions can be defined in two ways, namely giving descriptions and providing exceptions-- the latter works better. China, in the Law of Reality, has applied both means. However, the scope of its application could have been defined more specifically and more rigorously.As a real right for security, chattel mortgage must establish its own way of publication. Among the five ways to define its publication, (i.e.:meaning existentialism,writing existentialism ,register existentialism ,meaning existential and register confrontation ,writing existentialism and register confrontation ), writing existentialism and register confrontation serves the ends best. The present paper studies the effectiveness of registration, and discusses the definition, the scope of "the third person" in registration as well as the space-time limitations on registration. Moreover, issues on the perfection of chattel mortgage system, the identification of rights and its significance to chattel mortgage publication are also discussed in this paper and related suggestions are made.It is inevitable that given the real right of movables and of others, certain conflicts may exist as to the security interest on one single object. Under such cases, interests of all the parties should be considered and coordinated in order to set fair rules that are widely acceptable. Possible conflicts include that among chattel mortgage, lien and pledge, as well as among different chattel mortgage rights. The writer discusses these varied conflicts according to the Property Law, predicts their possible outcomes and presented his opinion on how to determine the priority of different rights.