On Compensation Of Contractual Reliance Interest

Modern private law has advanced from individual proper to society proper. Safeguarding reliance interests is the result of the honesty principle and a necessity of preserving the interests of the contracting parties.Reliance interests are universally acknowledged and preserved, either in civil law system or in common law. Concerning the reliance interests compensation, China has transplanted contracting fault liability regime from civil law family, but the theories of reliance interests in China are still not well developed. This thesis aims to make a comparison of the compensation system between civil law family and common law, explore the basic concepts, scope, limitation rules of reliance interests, and help to develop the compensation system for contract reliance interests in our country.The thesis consists of three parts:introduction, body and conclusion. In the introduction, based on our knowledge of the legal value of reliance interests, we propose that it is an urgent issue to study reliance interests systematically and deepen our understanding of the system.The body is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 is about the definition of reliance interests. After introducing the definitions of reliance interests in both civil law system and common law as well as logical deficiencies of Loss Theory, Interest Theory, and Situational Change Theory, the paper points out that reliance interests are the interests lost as a result of reliance of contracting parties. They are pre-existing interests, and compensation for damaging them covers all the damages and all the damaged interests.Chapter 2 compares the compensation systems for damage in civil law and common law. It traces the birth and the development of the compensation systems for damage in civil law and common law, and makes a comparison between the two. Although the two laws have different specific rules and theoretical constructs concerning the issue of compensation of reliance interests, contracting fault liability of the civil law overlaps with the compensation system of reliance interests in the common law, with a converging tendency in terms of their functions.Chapter 3 deals with the scope and application of compensation for damage of reliance interests. Firstly, compensation ranges are discussed, and then restrictions on the compensation ranges are explored. Such issues as predictability rule, whether reliance interests compensation is limited by expected interests, gains-and-losses offsetting rule, and fault offsetting rule are investigated one after another. Then the chapter discusses some common but important application patterns of reliance interests compensation system:revocation of unintended expressions, unauthorized agency, the objective can not be paid from the beginning, malicious consultations, unauthorized revocation of the offer by the offeror, invalid contract and a failure to provide explanation when signing a contract, and so on.Chapter 4 aims to perfect the legal policies about compensation system for damage of contractual reliance interests in our country. It first comments on the present legislative situations of compensation system for damage of contractual reliance interests in our country, and then after analyzing the legislative deficiencies of contracting fault liability in China, the chapter offers some suggestions to theoretically and legislatively perfect our contracting fault liability system.The conclusion summarizes the major points in the thesis, and proposes that perfecting compensation system for damage of reliance interests is also needed by the whole society, and it will definitely help regulate the contracting acts of contracting parties. Thus, an exploration of relevant issues of compensation for damage of contract reliance interest can provide reasonable suggestions for the legislation of the concerned law system.