On The Necessity Of Establishing The Principle Of Change Of Situation In Civil Law Of China

To safeguard independence, equality, fairness and good faith of market economy order, many countries and areas have established the principle of change of situation in legislation. Also, there are many countries recognizing this principle in theory and judicial precedent. The INCOTERMS, United Nations Convention on Contracts for International Sale of Goods and etc. have also confirmed it. But regrettably, the Contract Law of the People's Republic of China published in 1999 canceled it. This essay expounds the development of the principle of change of situation from the angle of history and draws the conclusion from legislation and judicial experiences of foreign countries. Although this principle experiences rise and decline, and demonstrates various forms, it still has significant value because of its indispensable rationality of existence. In the same time, this article tries to compare the principle with commercial risk, force majeure, frustration of contract, obvious unfairness, impunity article and etc, define the principle in theory, and analyses the conditions and effects of its application according to the circumstances of judicial practice. The author accumulates many typical cases of different periods of Chinese judicial practice in order to study this problem in a positive way. Finally, the author concretely analyses those different opinions about the principle and puts forward the suggestions of establishing the principle of change of situation in Chinese legislation.