A Study On Economical Disputes And Litigation Involving Commercial In Song Dynasty

The development of commodity economy in Song Dynasty caused great changes in people's social life and fueled legal regulation on social economy. This paper, by combining the history of economy and legal system, explores the economic disputes and lawsuits involving business in the period of the Tang-Song transition and probes into the interactivity of law and commodity economy.The introduction deals with the significance of the topic, literature review and the main contents of the paper and defines and elaborates on some basic concepts. Based upon the examination of economic disputes and lawsuits in business and legal standing of litigation subject, the economic disputes related to business can be categorized into disputes caused in trading fields and houses, disputes between ordinary merchants, disputes related to foreign trade and disputes among groups of special needs.Chapter One, dealing with economic legislation and disputes in the field of business, analyses the evolution of business-related economic legislation from the perspectives of legislation thought and action and argues that the legislative content of business in Song Dynasty was rich and comprehensive, which promoted the legislation and justice. And material and economic benefits were the core of the disputes and most of them were featured with repeated filing of the same lawsuit.Chapter Two, dealing with the types of the disputes and lawsuits, narrates and analyses the causes, events, and application of law in trial respectively and reveals people's social and economic relationships and legal status in economic disputes and lawsuits related to doing business.Chapter Three, dealing with legal mediation to business-related economic disputes and lawsuits, analyses profoundly the adjustments of right in economic disputes and lawsuits. The accommodation of property rights represented the protection of the benefit of keepers of lost properties. And the process of debt recovery was changed from being out of the interference of the government to be interfered by the government; the expansion of the right of social member was demonstrated by the ownership of independent status of civil subject on the part of tenant farmers and maid-servants and by the ownership of right to give proposals in law-making and autonomy in management on the part of merchants; the progress of judicial proceedings was reflected by the improvement of contract evidence system, abolition of time limit upon disputes and lawsuits, the acquisition of right to file lawsuits by the merchants and the standardization of the management of brokers.Chapter Four, dealing with economic disputes involving business and social economy in Song Dynasty, examines the circulation of land right, the personnel transmit in society, distribution of commodities and the formation of circle of international maritime trade in disputes caused in trading fields and houses, disputes between ordinary merchants and disputes related to foreign trade, which further leads to the characteristics of the relationship between economy and law in Song Dynasty: the frequent occurrence of economic disputes promoted the improvement of law in terms of business; contradiction existed between heavy emphasis on law-making and light emphasis on law publicity; emphasis was laid on zero lawsuit and suppressing lawsuit in the mediation of disputes, which caused fear of filing lawsuits on the part of ordinary people; morality and law were absent in the daily mediation.The conclusion summarizes the progress of economic legislation related to business in Song Dynasty and the development of social economy in economic disputes and lawsuits involving business.