A Study On The Righteous Behavior In Civil Law

Righteous behavior has been advocated since time immemorial. However,nowadays righteous behavior requires protection and stipulation from civil law. As anadvocated virtue righteous behavior should not conflict with the bottom line of lawand should always be under protection of the law. Therefore, this study will start bylooking at righteous behavior cases that took place in recent years and then it will turnto the task of analyzing righteous behavior in civil law.This study includes thefollowing four parts:Firstly, by mainly comparing two cases that took place in different years and bysummarizing some other judicial cases, this study will highlight problems related torighteous behavior, such as the various definitions for righteous behavior and explainthat the law adjustment cannot be unified.Secondly, this study will discuss legal interpretation and classificationconcerning righteous behavior. By summarizing local legislations and analyzingtheories about the nature of righteous behavior, such as spontaneous agency theory,avoid infringement theory, self defense theory and act of rescue theory. I found atheory basis which supports the argument that righteous behavior could be part ofemergency spontaneous agency and then I did further analysis. I will also analyzelegal nexus between parties that are involved in righteous behavior, thus dividingrighteous behavior into two categories: righteous behavior that has an infringerinvolved and righteous behavior that has no infringer involved. Part three, consists of analyzing a situation where the righteous behaviorvolunteer is injured. A volunteer can request compensation from a beneficiary andinfringer when he was injured by righteous behavior. When it turns to a beneficiary,based on cases, I will divide the judicial precedent of the volunteer’s right to requestinto two categories: firstly, a volunteer requests that the beneficiary is to pay theactual loss based on the negotiorum gestio requirement that is described in article93in <PRC General Principles of Civil Law>and article132in <PRC Opinions of theSupreme People’s Court on Several Issues concerning the Implementation of theGeneral Principles of the Civil Law>. Secondly, a volunteer may request that thebeneficiary is to make an adequate compensation scheme based on the descriptionfrom article23in <PRC Tort Law>, article15in <Interpretation of the SupremePeople’s Court of Some Issues concerning the Application of Law for the Trial ofCases on Compensation for Personal Injury>, article109in <PRC GeneralPrinciples of Civil Law>and article142in <PRC Opinions of the Supreme People’sCourt on Several Issues concerning the Implementation of the General Principles ofthe Civil Law>.. Meanwhile, I will analyze the relationship between the situationwhere a volunteer can request the infringer and the situation where a volunteer requestthe beneficiary.In part four, I will analyze the responsibility to injury caused by a volunteer thatlaunched righteous behavior. In order to take involved parties as classificationcriterion this part will respectively analyze injury caused to the beneficiary, to ainnocent third party and to the infringer. When there is damage caused to thebeneficiary, present emergency negotiorum gestio, when damage is caused to theinnocent third party, consider a circumstance in which abandoning the right to requestwhile the righteous behavior is taking place under danger caused by naturalfactor. While in the case of injury caused to the infringer consider whether therewould be a possibility of self-defence to exist. Finally, is to list and analyzeregulations related to righteous behavior in China. This will be supported by bothcomparison and established legal cases. Finally, I will propose suggestions for legalapplications to the civil laws that are related to righteous behavior with methods of law interpretation. When a volunteer causes injury, I will propose various suggestionsrespectively for judicial practices for three circumstances: Firstly, when a volunteercauses injury to an innocent third party, secondly when a volunteer causes injury tothe infringer, and thirdly when a volunteer causes injury to the beneficiary. When avolunteer is injured because of the righteous behavior, I will analyze the volunteer’srequirement to the beneficiary and infringer under circumstances that the infringerexists and circumstances that no infringer exists. Also, I will present that applying"adequate compensation" does not conflict when classifying righteous behavior tonegotiorum gestio, so it is reasonable to include "necessary expenses for negotiorumgestio" while calculating credit of "adequate compensation".