Study On Allocation Of Burden Of Proof In Unjust Enrichment Cases

The legal fact of unjust enrichment is constituted by three majorelements, which are the benefit, the damage, and the lack of legal cause.Law and judicial interpretation in China don’t tell us how to distribute theburden of proof of unjust enrichment between the parties clearly, andresearchers in the mainland of China don’t study that in depth. Besides that,understanding of that as well as the operation in the judicial practice is notunified. The dispute focused on which party assumes the burden of proof of“the lack of legal cause”. This article refutes the erroneous views by usingown case and scholar’s different views. Then the paper analyses the types ofunjust enrichment in civil law system and Anglo-American law system andthe general rules of allocation of burden of proof. The conclusion should bethat the plaintiff assumes the burden of proof in cause payment unjustenrichment, the preliminary burden of proof in no-cause payment, and thedefendant assumes the burden of proof in no-cause payment andnon-payment unjust enrichment.