On The Relative Freedom Of Contract

The relative freedom of contract theory is caused by the fact that in the modern society the disparity of economic strength and status between consumers,employees and manufacturers,employers becomes more and more remarkable.The relative freedom of contract theory means to restrict the contractual parties' contractual freedom in order to protect the economically weak ones' rights against the backdrop that the latter group usually squeezes the economically weak ones willfully in the name of the freedom of contract.But the relative freedom of contract theory is far from perfect,and people actually have been unable to determine the limit of the restriction of the freedom of contract.To solve this problem properly is a must and also has great significance in China,a country influenced by the planned economy over a long period of time,where the protection of the contractual parties' contractual freedom is far from enough.Through surveying the economic,political and theoretical basis of the formation of the relative freedom of contract theory and its development and changes,exploring the reasons of the formation of the relative freedom of contract theory and its limitation,and employing the Maslow hierarchy of needs theory,the Grading analytic method and the Game theory,the relative freedom of contract theory can be improved. Under China's current economic condition,the economically weak contractual parties have five kinds of need,i.e.,the physiological need, the need for security,freedom,fairness and efficiency,and these five kinds of need also contain their different levels respectively.The freedom of contract should not be restricted unless the order of priority of the different contractual needs is inverted,and the limit of the restriction of the freedom of contract is the restoration of order.Finally,some comments on some provisions of the Labor Contract Law of People's Republic of China,a mostly debated contract recently,will be made.