Research On The Principle Of Change Of Circumstances In The Anglo-american Law

Cicero once said, the law is the justice, but the foundation of justice lies in ’naturalrationality’, the justice is the morals. However, the justice is divided into the formal justiceand substantive justice. The spirit of the law is the pursuit of substantial justice. If the lawis the royal crown of empowering, then the principle of change of circumstances is ashining jewel on the crown. Given the principle of change of circumstances such highpraise is not unreasonable. In the history of the development of the law of contract, theemergence of the principle of change of circumstances broke the traditional thinking ofcontractual formalism, sent the contract to death and save the dead contract to rebirth.This paper is divided into four parts to analyze the principle of change ofcircumstances in the Anglo-American law, the content is as follows:The first part starts with the section26of Interpretation of the Supreme People’sCourt on Certain Issues concerning the Application of Contract Law (part two), analyzesour country’s achievement and the legal significance on the research of the principle ofchange of circumstances, further points out the inadequacies of the terms and raises theproblems still in the principle of change of circumstances.The second part analyzes the historical evolution of the principle of change ofcircumstances on the Anglo-American law, divides the development into three phases: thephase of the general rule of no excuse, the phase of impossible of performance and thephase of frustration of purpose. This part combines with the classic landmark case ofAnglo-American law then summarizes the characteristics and breakthroughs.The third part gives a comparative analysis of impossible of performance andfrustration of purpose in terms of recognition criteria, area of application and legalconsequence，further discussion on the principle of change of circumstances.The last part, through summarizing the characteristics, the strengths and weaknessesof the principle, the author proposes concrete proposals in terms of legislation,classification, renegotiation obligation, court adjustment of contract and procedural law inorder to improve our country’s principle of change of circumstances.