Non-pecuniary Damages For Breach Of Contract: A Comparative Law Perspective

Non-pecuniary damages for breach of contract has been an arguable but still unreslvoable legal issue,on which scholars are divided into two conflict groups.Some hold the traditional strance that non-pecuniary damages cannot be recoverable on the basis of contractual responsibility,others lately have shown their disagreement on this strance,in their opinion,contractual remedies should also be given to non-pecuniary losses.From the perspective of comparative law,this dissertation introduces and analyzes similarities and differences of the pattern to protect non-pecuniary losses of representative countries,so as to give references to Chinese legal refonn.In the present situation,English and American law doesn't acknowledge non-pecuniary damages in contract law on principle,but common law countries have set some exceptions in particular circumstances.In German civil law,in the range of legal interests of body,health,liberty and sexual self-determination,non-pecuniary losses can be protected on contractual basis,and there're no contractual remedies to other legal interests.In French law,contractual damages can be both in the form of pecuniary and non-pecuniary losses,so non-pecuniary damages can be generally established in the common contract law.Due to ambiguity of legislation and legal theory,Chinese judicial practice manifests chaos in different levels and non-pecuniary losses cannot be protected reasonably.Chinese legal system of non-pecuniary damages needs to be reformed urgently.Legislative styles of those representative countries provide helpful references to Chinese legal reform.However,only on the basis of Chinese actual conditions,reasonable ways to protect non-pecuniary can be found,thus to meet the demands of social and economic development.