On The Legal Status Of Estate Owners' Association In Civil Law

This thesis is produced to redress the misunderstanding on the concept of estate owners'association in terms of China's legislation theory. It also tries to establish a new legal system that has been missed for long for estate owners'association by clarifying the legal nature of both estate owners'convention and estate owners' committee. Hopefully, the thesis would not only complete the civil law theory on the status of civil subject as of estate owners'association, but also help find a practical way on procedural law with the support of substantial law for the owners to get their rights protected.The thesis comprises five parts in all apart from the preface and the conclusion.In part one, the thesis introduces the definition of estate management and the concept and range of a estate owner as well. By analyzing the structure of divisional ownership of building theory, it declares that the co-owned right and member right raised from the system of divisional ownership of building are where the theory of estate owners'self management comes from.Estate owners strongly call for the respect and protection for their common interests, which, according to the thesis, is the background for estate owners'association's existence.In part two, the ambiguous stipulations in legislation on the status of estate owners'convention and committee are used to explain why the legislators fail to bring us a correct legal nature of estate owners'association. Since the courts tend to give equivocal opinions on whether a estate owners'committee is allowed to file a suit, some judicial explanations are launched in an attempt to solve the problem. However, the thesis insists that the reason for estate owners'committee's dilemma in terms of suing qualification is nothing but the legislators'refusal to admit the legal status of estate owners'association. The fact that both the estate owners'convention and committee are just internal organs of the association makes legislators'solution contradictive to civil subject theory. After all, only by giving estate owners' association a proper legal status, can we move on to further discussion.In part three, by studying the contract relationship between estate owners and estate owners'association, the thesis reaches a conclusion that the single wills of all the estate owners are combined to one common will with the signing of multiple contracts, which finally form an independent will that belongs to owners'association. Meanwhile, the legal nature of estate owners'convention and committee is elaborated in this part, aiming at explaining that both two are just composing parts of the owners' association as a independent civil subject.In part four, the thesis holds that the estate owners'association should be given a civil subject status.By analyzing the mainstream theories on the standards for civil subject qualification, the thesis points out the value and defects of each theory. In the end, the theory of independent will and the theory of civil subject functioning are accepted by the thesis in setting up the civil subject standard system. Since the estate owners'association has been proved that it does have a independent will and it acts as a valuable organization for all the estate owners in the whole society, there should be no doubt on owners'association's obtaining its civil subject status.In part five, the different modes of legislation on estate owners'association's subject status are introduced by the thesis in order to design an optimum system for China's estate management legislation. Either the mode of unincorporated organization represented by Germany, or the mode of legal person chosen by France, or Japan's middle course mode, brings us different angles on this issue before we make our decision. In China, there are actually intense arguments on whether the owner's association should choose legal person mode or the mode of unincorporated organization in its civil status legislation. The thesis manages to enumerate both the advantages and disadvantages of the two modes and the adaptability of each one to estate owners'association as well. Then, it states that China should set up a civil subject system for estate owners'association using the structure of unincorporated organization. Finally, the thesis puts forward some suggestions on detailed provisions that law should impose on owners'association in every aspect as an unincorporated organization.