On The Legal System Of Fault Liability To The Contract

The system of fault liability to contract was established in the crack between the traditional contract and tort which solve the protection problems of the contract reliance interest that were not solved by the traditional contract and tort. Fault liability to contract breaks through the notion that the civil responsibility must be fulfilled if the contract was broken. And makes up the loopholes in the obligation of the pre-contract which was adjusted by act of tort in the contract law. It plays an important role to protect the contact partners' legal interest, safeguard the trade , keep the order of market, and maintain the good faith principle.There was system of the right of appeal in trade to make up the damage of reliance loss in ancient Roman but there was no complete theory of pre-contract obligation and fault liability to the contact. Until 1861 Germany jurist's Paper put forward comparatively complete theory of fault liability to contract. Chinese contact law (announced in 1999), the basic law, established the theory of fault liability to the contract which is the sign of coming up to a new stage. Although the theory is fairly complete there are still some faults existing in the system, constituent, and contents which lead to "dear not to use" or "abuse" in the judicial practice. Because of the above problems the author adopts the methods of studying the theory and analyzing the cases and cites enough stipulations from Chinese contract law to study the system of fault liability to contract from different aspects and put forward some suggestions which are not mature and complete.There are six sections altogether:The first section is the summarization of fault liability to contract. Firstly, the author deals with the establishment of the theory. There were some faults in the theory from the ancient Roman law to the Germany jurist's Paper. The first is that the theory of fault liability to the contract should include deliberation and negligence. The second is the theory that can be applied to the situations of the contract being informed, invalid and valid. Thirdly, the author deals with the concept of the theory. Then, the author makes definition of the theory: For the partner(s) disobeys the obligations of the pre-contract and caused the damage of reliance interest which was based on the principle of good faith and leads to the loss during the process of signing the contract, he or she must be responsible for the damage compensation. At last, the author deals with the law connotation of the theory. The reliance of signing the contract is a kind of relation which is expressed by the forms of language, action words and so on and is protected by the law during the process of signing the contract. Because the opposite partner(s) trusts the partner(s) actions and makes some responses which change the opposite partner' economic position, the partner(s) has to make up the compensation. The aim of the theory is to safeguard the reliance interest. Reliance interest is a kind of damage compensation which was caused by the opposite partner(s) who disobeys the principle of good faith when one partner makes the response to the opposite action.The second section is the relations among fault liability to the contract and responsibility of contract breach. And there are also superposition among them.The third section is the constituent of fault liability to contract. The theory has four essentials: The opposite partner(s) disobey the obligation of the pre-contract; The reliance interest is damaged; One partner has fault; There are consequence between the action of fault liability to contract and the result of damage. The constituent provides pattern for the judicial practice.The fourth section is the applicable scope of fault liability to contract. The author deals with fault liability to the contract when the contract is informed, invalid, and valid by citing some cases..The fifth section is the damage compensation of fault liability to contract The author makes the definition and restricts for the scope of damage compensation and think the compensation should not exceed the contact benefit.The sixth section is the current situation and the perfection suggestions of fault liability to contract. The author analyzes the current situation from the aspects of judicial and legislative aspect and puts forward some specific suggestions.