Discussion On The Contributory Negligence In The Field Of Liability For Breach Of Contract

Contributory negligence rule is one of the most important rule in civil law. It means, when the injured party has a fault to occurrence or amplification of the damage, the duty of the other party to reparation should be reduced or waive. However, the rule is limping in the framework of liability for breach of contract in our country. Our liability for breach of contract is Strict liability. <Contract Law of The People’s Republic of China> and <General Principles of the Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China> don’t have even a article for the rule of Contributory negligence, but they have the rule of “Bilateral Breach” and “Mitigate” to adjust the Compensation. But, in the law practice, the demand of contributory negligence increases very quickly, and as its result, <Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on Issues Concerning the Application of Law for the Trial of Cases of Disputes over Sales Contracts> provide a article for Contributory negligence(Article 30). By the way of interpretation, over Sales Contracts the demand of the rule will be satisfied. But the article does not explain the legal principle of the rule, and it does not explain either how the rule goes in Strict liability.Therefore, it is necessary to research for the rule of contributory negligence, to explore out a perfect solution, and to achieve fairness and justice.This article can be divided into the following parts: Firstly, discuss the legal principle of the rule, research the history of the development of the rule and find out the appliance with integral perspective. Secondly, from the perspective of theory of Interpretation,analyze the appliance under the framework of the existing contract law. Finally, from the perspective of theory of Legislation, put forward some suggest to legislate.Through the above analysis, this article concludes to following aspechts:First, distinguish Contributory negligence with Mitigate, and limit the appliance of Contributory negligence in occurrence of the damage. Second, the rule still require the fault. Third, the appliance is to compare the Causality between the behavior of the parties with the damage. Fourth, take the form of "should be reduced or waived ". I believe that through the aspechts, it can be better to allocate the damage between the parties, to achieve the purpose of balance of interests.