Study On The European Legislation Of Service Contracts

The importance of "services" and "service contracts" is increasing inmodern society, but the concept and rules of them is still under developing.In the process of European integration the authority and academic also payspecial attention to integration of rules on service contracts. The Chineselaw is lack of rules on service contracts. Moreover, the theoretical researchin this area mainly concentrates in the single type of service contracts,trying to make each service type to become an independent typical contract.However, the new types of service contracts emerge in an endless stream. Itis hence impossible to bring all the service types into the code.This thesis is a study on the European legislation of service contracts,focusing on the types of service contracts, legislative technique andconcrete rules. Furthermore, it attempts on this basis to provide a referenceto legislation of service contracts in China.The first chapter is about the study on legislation of service contractsin seven European countries. Firstly, taking German Civil Code (BGB) asan example, it analyzes the concepts of "service" and "service contracts"and determines a general definition of "service contracts". The law ofservice contracts in the Roman law is as common source of Europeanprivate law to be introduced. There is a research on types, systems andrules of service contracts in France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland,the Netherlands and Russia.The second chapter analyzes the existing national legislation withrespect to the types and legislative technique of service contracts. Thegeneral characteristics embodied in a set of abstract rules, the distinctionbetween contract of employment and contract for work, the influence of commercial law and so on.The third chapter is committed to the study on the EU uniformlegislation of service contracts. Firstly, it lists the different expressions of"service" and "service contracts" in varied sources of EU law. Secondly, itexamines the uniform rules of service contracts in the "Principles ofEuropean Law: Service Contracts (PEL SC)", the "Draft Common Frame ofReference (DCFR)" and the "Draft of Expert Group".The fourth chapter introduces the service contracts in Chinese law.The improvement and development of Chinese service contract law,concerning the European experience of service contracts, is to be discussed.As the conclusion, the similarities, differences and main problems ofthe national legislation of service contracts is summarized. It sums up thecharacteristics of the EU uniform legislation of service contracts. Finally, itexplains what the Chinese legislation can learn from the European model.