Research On The Liability Of Interference With Contract Relations

It is always a controversial problem in civil law theory that whether one should be held liable for interfering with contract relations.As a consequence of the development of markets,the significance of contracts in civil activities has been more recognized in modern context.However,since the business competition becomes fierce and more vicious methods are come up to gain profits,contracts are exposed to considerably threats that the protection from early civil law seems not quite enough.At this time,conferring contractors with certain right against general people other than just the parties of the contact,and make persons who maliciously interfere with contracts liable for their wrongful behaviors,would be a very meaningful approach to protect legal rights and regulate the markets.The dissertation discusses the necessity,validity and structure of the rule of ‘liable for tort of contract'.The aim is to solve the problems we might find when we decide to accept this rule as a part of our civil law in the future.The dissertation concludes four parts.Firstly,it looks at the written law and case law of other countries and Taiwan Province of China to learn their experiences in dealing with the problem of interference with contract relations.After analyzing,it finds that both common law countries and civil law countries have the same attitude towards this problem: make the person liable for the loss he caused under certain circumstances.Common law countries have been improving the way of solving this kind of case through judicial precedents,while civil law countries solve this problem by explaining general provisions of tort law.On the other hand,though the rule of ‘liable for tort of contract' is accepted by many countires,the liability of the defendant is restricted through ligislation,precedents and legal theory;secondly,the dissertation analyses the difficulties to solve the problem of interference with contracts under current law system in China,which could be solved by the rule of ‘liable for tort of contract'.Therefore the dissertation argues that the rule of ‘liable for tort of contract' is necessary for civil law,and it should be establishied to protect legal rights and profits,to maintain the order of market and to reduce the costs in litigation;the dissertation then ties to respond to the main critics of the rule's theoretical validity,including whether this rule violates the relativity principle of contract and whether it will overly restrict freedom in civil activities or put unreasonably onerous burden on individuals.Through analysis,the dissertation argues these critics are not true and the rule of ‘liable for tort of contract' is reasonable in legal theory.On the one hand,it argues that contractual profits should not be infringed by anyone.Not only the contractors obliged to respect the contract relations and not to infringe it,others also have this obligation.Contracts could be and should be under the protection of tort law in certain circumstances.This is not contradictory to the principle of relativity of contacts.On the other hand,compared to general tort liabilities,the rule of ‘liable for tort of contract' has certain restrictions on the elements of its liability,and the defendant would not be held liable unless the plantiff can prove the existence of these elements.Therefore making the defendant liable for his malicious infringement would not restrict the freedom in common civil activities;finally,to balance the protection of contract relations and the freedom of general citizens,and to make this rule work well in future case law,the dissertation discusses some specific problems of establishing this rule in civil law in the future,including the elements of the liability,the defence,and how to undertake the liability.