Research On Breach Of Contracts And Spiritual Damages

Spiritual harms in breach of contracts is a complicated and controversial issue in civil law which aroused heated argument in every legal system for almost a century, and granting property compensation to spiritual damage is a symbol of the progress of modern law.Since there is no definite provision in China for claim right of spiritual harms caused by breach of contracts, it is commonly believed that harms caused by breach of contracts cannot be granted spiritual damages. In practice, however, litigants who claim for spiritual damages sometimes receive favorable judgments. Therefore, we must give reasonable explanations and sufficient demonstrations on the issue, otherwise it will bring about judicial confusion and lead to the abuse of discretion, thus devastating the internal value of our legal system. Although the majority of scholars in China deny spiritual damages for breach of contracts, both civil law and common law countries adopt the compensation to a certain extent. It is necessary for China to establish a spiritual compensation regime suitable for China to recover harms caused by breach of contracts. We should draw advanced experience from other countries and take into consideration the current situation of our country. Therefore, to better protect the basic human rights and moral rights of citizens and to arouse the consciousness of right of the people, we must establish and perfect the system of spiritual damages and propel the overall development of material, spiritual and civilization in China.This paper reviews the judicial practices on spiritual damages granted in other countries and analyses the attitudes of Chinese scholars on the contractual remedies on the basis of theoretical and empirical studies. It analyses the rationality, necessity and feasibility of establishing the regime of spiritual damages, and proposes the setting up of spiritual damages for breach of contracts. The paper concludes that spiritual harms caused by breach of contracts should be compensated to a certain extent.This paper consists of a foreword and three parts.Part one of the paper reviews the legal regime of damages for breach of contracts. It first examines relevant theories of contractual damages and provides a detailed introduction to the concepts and characteristics of spiritual damages for breach of contracts.Part two of the paper emphasizes on the rational factors of spiritual damages in the liability for breach of contracts in. In the first place, it compares the doctrines and judicial practices on spiritual damages for breach of contracts in other countries. Secondly, it studies the disserting opinions on the application of spiritual damages in contract law. It ends with the analysis of spiritual damages for breach of contracts from the perspective of jurisprudence.Part three of the paper puts forward the system construction of spiritual damages for breach of contracts. It first analyses the constituents of spiritual damages for breach of contracts, and proposes the scope of compensation for spiritual harms. It concludes with the proposal of the regulations of spiritual damages in applying the principle of reasonable prediction, the principle of minimum injury, the rule of mitigation, the rule of counterbalance of negligence, and the rule of offset of loss against interests.