A Research On The Compensation For Spiritual Damage By Breach Of Contract

Can the observant party ask for compensation in the litigation if breach of contractcauses the spiritual damage for it? This is always a controversial question in theory as well asin practice. The traditional theory of civil law believes that the concept: spiritual damagecompensation is only in the field of tort law, because liability of breach of contract isdominantly concerning property and the spiritual damage compensation should not beincluded in it. Although this is the mainstream of law, more and more scholars are holding theopposite idea. Simultaneously, in our judicial practice, some courts have already made thejudgments that the delinquent party shall bear the liability of spiritual damage compensationin certain contract disputes. It is unquestionable that breach of contract can cause spiritualdamage, even serious one for the observant party. Therefore, what is the reason that themainstream does not support the observant party in their request for the spiritual damagecompensation in a litigation of breach of contract? And what is the basic reason for the otherscholars to raise the viewpoint that the court should accept the request for spiritual damagecompensation in certain contract disputes?To solve these problems, this article makes a comparison between the foreign andinternational legislation and judicial practice related to spiritual damage compensation inbreach of contract on the basic introduction of the definition of spiritual damage, thediscussion on the nature and function of law, and the definition, character as well as thejurisprudence foundation of spiritual damage compensation in breach of contract, etc. Andthen, using the approach of uniting theory with practice, planting the feet on the nationalconditions of China, this article analyzes several cases about spiritual damage compensationin breach of contract in the judicial practice of China. And on this basis, it proves thenecessity and feasibility of implementing spiritual damage compensation in breach of contractin China, raising the methods as well as recommendation on legislation and judiciary.This article has three parts: introduction, body and conclusion. The body includes fourchapters: the first chapter is the introduction and the jurisprudence foundation of spiritual damage compensation in breach of contract; the second chapter studies the spiritual damagecompensation in breach of contract using comparative law. Through the comparison betweendifferent spiritual damage compensation in breach of contract provided in the civil law whichrepresentatives are France and Germany, in the Anglo-American law which is stood for byBritain and America, in Taiwan, China as well as the international and regional contract law,this chapter enunciates the developing trend of spiritual damage compensation in breach ofcontract in the modern contract law. And chapter three is an analysis of trials on spiritualdamage compensation in breach of contract in China. Divided into three parts, Chapter fourspecifically explains the construction of the system of spiritual damage compensation inbreach of contract. The first part analyses the necessity and feasibility of building the spiritualdamage compensation in breach of contract system in China; the second part is about theapproach of constructing this system; and the third part provides some legislative and judicialadvice on establishing the system of spiritual damage compensation in breach of contract.