Research On The Legal Relations Of Charitable Services

In the current studies and practice on philanthropy,people mainly focus on donations,fundraising and volunteer services,with less attention to charitable services whatsoever.As the last but most important stage of the charity activities,in contrast with the other parts of the charity activities,charitable services contain at least the following legal relations: the legal relationship between the providers of charitable services and the beneficiaries;between the trustor and the trustee of the charitable services;between the charitable organizations and the volunteers recruited;between the volunteers and the beneficiaries in charitable services;between the government,the providers of charitable services and the beneficiaries respectively,etc.This paper focuses on the civil legal relationships among the subjects of charitable services and elaborates on the concept of charitable services,the nature and elements of the civil legal relationships among the subjects,and the corresponding legal responsibilities thereof in sequence.The first part centers on the definition of charitable services and the nature of the civil legal relationships among the subjects,discussing the basic concept of charitable services and their distinction and connection with such related concepts as social services,volunteering and the management and utilization of charity property.The legal relationship between the providers of charitable services and the beneficiaries shall be treated as the innominate contract relationship;and the legal relationship between the trustor and the trustee of charitable services,commission contract relationship;and the contractual relationship between the charitable organizations and the volunteers recruited,non-typical contract relationship,while there is no legal relationship between the volunteers and the beneficiaries.The second part deals with the definition of the subjects participated in charitable services,which shall be interpreted generally,including natural person,the charitable organizations,the trustee,the beneficiaries,the volunteers and other organizations.The third part discusses the rights and obligations of subjects in charitable services by analysing the main rights and obligations of the correlative subjects based on the current laws and regulations.The last part analyses the liabilities and responsibilities in civil law and social law respectively,and the former mainly involves the liability for breach of contract and the liability for tort,while the latter relates to the insurance system of volunteer services and the volunteer service foundation.In addition to civil law,the legal relations arising out of charitable services shall also be subject to social laws.