The Application Of The Principle Of The Changed Circumstances In The Contract Law Of China

As one of the important principles in performing a contract, the principle of changed circumstances is of positive significance in reducing contract disputes, regulating the performance of the parties to the contract, and balancing the interest imbalance caused by major changes in various objective situations. The publication of The Interpretation of Contract Law of China2 in 2009 stipulates corresponding regulations on the principle of changed circumstances, which can be seen as the exact legal regulation to deal with contractual disputes. More importantly, the principle of changed circumstances is the right given to the courts to intervene directly in the contractual relationship, which is called fair discretion right promoting Contract Law to adapt to new social and economic situation changes, be more effective and more flexible in adjusting the interest conflicts between the parties, safeguard the community's normal economic order and achieve the unity of legal effect and social effect. However, the issue of how to apply the principle of changed circumstances, how to identify the changes of situation, and how to distinguish the changes of situation and related concepts worth people's argument and research, which plays a key role in the accurate and effective application of the principle in our judicial practice. Therefore, this paper researches the principle in the way of introducing connected cases, from which the paper analyses the determination, application and judgment in court's judicial practice. The paper analyzes the theoretical structure of the principle of changed circumstances and the distinction in the related concepts of changed circumstance, force majeure and commercial risks, and pays more attentions to the analysis that how to define changed circumstance and its related concepts in judicial practice, which is the crucial point and difficulty for the application of the principle of changed circumstances. Besides that, the paper also concludes some questionable questions from the real cases trialed and judged by the courts of first instance and second instance, especially for the judgment made by the court of second instance, the author proposes new opinions that at the time the court applies the principle of changed circumstances to judge a case, it should be accordance with guiding price stipulated by government departments if provided in a specific case, which to some extent, can limit the discretion power of a judge, and avoid the emergences of a number of judicial corruptions going against the fair judgment and the interests of both parties to the contract.