Explore On The Stereotype Of Natural Obligation

Natural obligation is an ancient legal conception that is affected bynatural law and used mainly to settle the problems created by familysystem、slavery and the formalism tradition of jus civile. In modern times,natural obligations still can be found in the laws or doctrines of manycountries. Although Chinese law scholars have took it as a civil legalconception, natural obligation’s connotation and essence are still incontroversy. This paper looks into the origins and manifestations of naturalobligations in Roman Law in order to identify the causes and the mission itassumed; this paper researches the connotation, features and comparisonswith similar conceptions in order to get general comprehension of naturalobligation; this paper analyses the natural obligations’ types and listsspecific examples in order to understand natural obligations’ performanceand practical appliance in real life.Besides the introduction and conclusion, this paper can be dividedinto four chapters as follow:Chapter One talks about the connotation of Natural Obligation. Inpractice, natural law was treated as the same conception as jus gentium.However, the Romans were likely to focuse on the practice, thereforenatural law in their eyes was like a justice and virtue oriented methods forsolving the practical problems. Natural Obligation inherited that trait ofnatural law, and made efforts to correct the unequal social system inRome. There were various types of natural obligations in Roman Law,which came from the family system, slavery and the formalism tradition ofjus civile. That refers to the people’s legal capacity. From the formal traitsand values embedded, Natural Obligation is thought to be justice andvirtue oriented obligation, and the debtor can not request the return ofvoluntary payment. In order to study Natural Obligation further, I compare it with the incomplete obligation，obligation without liability,moral obligation. special illegal profit and dotation, and find theirdifferences.Chapter Two puts Natural Obligation in type research mode. Aftercomparing the points of type research method and Natural Obligation, wecan reach a conclude that type research method is the best way to studyNatural Obligation. Then we come to classification standards. I choose theclassification of natural obligations abased from civil obligations,and thoseexalted from pure moral obligations and malpractice.Chapter Three and Four analyse specific practical examples of naturalobligations abased from civil obligations,and those exalted from puremoral obligations and malpractice. The former are abased from civilobligations,such as obligations left by incorrect judgment and CivilObligation barred by extinctive prescription. I cannot agree that theobligations left after Enterprise reorganization or bankruptcy are naturalobligations. On the other hand, Obligations from malpractice meet people’s justice demands and be accepted as Natural Obligation.This article takes the type analysis as the main research method,withthe historical, comparative, value analysis method in addition. Theinnovations and characteristics of this article are listed as follow: First,Natural Obligation in civil law can be traced to the natural law of ancientRoma Law, and natural law was considered as a justice and virtue orientedway to resolve the practical problems, which came into the NaturalObligation. Second, this paper studies natural obligations in type researchmethod, divides them into different types and lists correspondingexamples, which can help us understand various types better and play aguiding role in practical appliance. Third, the debtor can not request thereturn of voluntary payment, but this feature cannot used as the standard todistinguish qualificatory natural obligation. The judgment standard is thenatural law’s values Natural Obligation bears.