Social Donation Contract Research

Reference to social donation in this paper is solely reference to the donation made tospecific natural persons, which is a kind of gift contract. Currently in China, the gapbetween the rich and the poor is rapidly widening and the social security system has notyet been fully established. The public has regarded the credibility of official welfaredonation agencies including the Red Cross with suspicion due to the event ofGuomeimei in the last year. Under such a background, ordinary social donation has notonly played an incomparable role in making up the deficiency of the official welfareagencies and in helping those people in financial trouble, but also has played animportant role in building a civilized and harmonious society. Social donation is worthresearch theoretically.The social donation contract referred to in this paper is also known as the specificpurpose gift. It refers to an act of non-specific persons, based on specific purposes, tovoluntarily and freely donate their legitimate property to specific natural persons who ismaking a relief request through specific divisions (such as schools and the newspapersetc.) or directly to the society because of specific reasons (e.g. extreme economicdifficulty due to living, study or disease), usually in the form of a donation agreement ora public notice.This paper is divided into four parts to elaborate social donation contracts. The first partanalyzes the legal features of social donation contracts and the differences betweensocial donation contracts and other kinds of special gift. In this part, firstly the authorexpounds the legal features of social donation contracts which includes: general socialdonation contracts often involve three parties (including the donor, the recipient and thecontribution initiator), with the donor and the recipient being the main parties and the contribution initiator being a related party given its close relationship with theconclusion and performance of the social donation contract; since the social donationcontract is an agreement between the donor and the recipient, social donation is abilateral juristic act; once an agreement between the donor and the recipient is reached asocial donation contract will be deemed having been entered into, without the need forspecific forms or procedures, hence the social donation contract is a kind of promissoryand informal contract; one difference between social donation and other gifts is thatsocial donation is a gift based on specific purpose (for the purpose of helping therecipient conquer temporary economic difficulties), hence the social donation contract isa specific purpose gift. Secondly, the author compares social donation contracts withother kinds of special gifts such as the gift attached with a burden and the gift forcommonweal purpose, so as to further clarify the features of social donation contracts.The second part of this paper discusses the nature and the conclusion of social donationcontracts. The debate about the nature of gift contracts during the stipulation process ofthe Contract Law of our country is introduced to illustrate that gift contracts arepromissory contracts. Since the social donation contract is a special gift contract, itshould be a promissory contract too. In this part the author analyzes that social donationcontracts being classified as promissory contracts is more in line with the purpose ofsocial donation contracts and is more conducive to the protection of the interests of therecipients. The author further analyzes that because the social donation contract belongsto the promissory contract, a social donation contract should be deemed having beenconcluded once the donor and the recipient have reached a donation agreement,although the conclusion process usually involves a written notice known as thecontribution initiative which playes a very important role in the donation activities. Theauthor elaborates its assertion that the legal nature of the contribution initiative shouldbe an offer in this part. The third part of this paper discusses the legal relationshipbetween the parties of the social donation contract, involving the relationship of rights and obligations between the main parties of the social donation contract and thecontribution initiator in relation with the social donation contract. The fourth part of thispaper elaborates the termination of the social donation contract. As a contract is a civiljuristic act, there must be a period for each contract. The author discusses some specialreasons for terminating social donation contracts in this part, such as the donor’s legalright of rescission and cancellation, as well as a special reason peculiar to socialdonation contracts which is the cancellation arising from the failure of the donationpurpose. In addition, in the judicial practice, disputes often arise when the donatedproperty remains. The author analyzes the principle of resolving this kind of dispute,which is: basically the intention of the donor should be respected; where the donor doesnot indicate definitely that the donated property may be used for other purposes, theintention of the donor in dealing with the remaining donated property should not bepresumed, where the remaining donated property should be owned by the recipient.