On Legal Force Of Fidelity Agreement

Whether the fidelity agreement signed by a husband and his wife has legal force andwhether such case should be accepted by the court are much vexed problems for the academiccircle. And in the practical circle, people have not reached an agreement on such issues. Inthis paper, author attempts to analyze the first case on fidelity agreement in China, elaborateson constitutive requirements of fidelity agreements and application of law, and finally offershis advice.Apart from the introduction, this paper falls into five parts, is about15,000words.In the first part, author introduces the basic factual background and main disputes of thecase. After trial, the court holds that the fidelity agreement is legally enforceable, and ordersthe defendant pay300,000yuan as liquidated damages to the plaintiff. The main dispute of thiscase is whether the fidelity agreement executed by the parties is legally valid and enforceable.In the second part, author discusses the concept and nature of fidelity agreement. Firstly,author defines fidelity agreement.In his opinion, fidelity agreement is a meeting of minds by ahusband and his wife in which the couple agree that neither party shall have extramaritalsexual behavior in the duration of marriage, otherwise the party shall give the counterpartsome amount of money or be deprived of some rights or be burdened some duty. After that,author analyzes the features and divides the fidelity agreement into different types based onthe obligor, breach of contract and responsibility. In the same time, author discusses the twomain theories on the nature of fidelity agreement and maintains that fidelity agreement hasboth physical and property features.In the third part, author discusses the legal force of fidelity agreement. Firstly authordiscusses various opinions on legal force, and based on that, he introduces theeffective factors of fidelity agreement. The effective factors are different from other civil legalact. The main effective factors can be summarized as follows: the subjects shall have fullcapacity for civil conduct and are lawful husband and wife; the expressed intention is true,and the content is not against law and public order and the agreement shall be in written form.In the fourth part, author discusses the legal consequence of breach of fidelity agreement.In this part, the nature of breach is elaborated. In his eye, such act is a violation of moral duty,but not a violation of legal duty, is a breach of contract but not a tort. Such act would result inresponsibility of breach of contract, but not cause the effectiveness of conditional civil legal act. And then, author discusses the application of law on fidelity agreement. Finally, authoranalyzes the typical issues in such cases.In the fifth part, author analyzes the resolution of the case and offers his judicial advice.Author discusses the court’s opinions in detail and analyzes the confronted puzzles and putforward his advice.