Judicial Determination Of Public Interest In Invalid Contracts

The determination of invalid contracts is the core issue and difficult problem in the theory and judicial practice of contract law.Regarding the invalidity of the contract,Article 52 of the Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China(hereinafter referred to as the Contract Law)stipulates five situations.Among them,the fourth case is "invalid because it damages the social public interest".Because the concept of social public interest is very abstract and vague,the Contract Law does not clearly stipulate its specific concept,so the judgment on this issue in judicial practice is relatively chaotic.In the introduction,the author mainly puts forward the research objectives,research methods and the framework of the paper.Looking at the existing judicial documents in practice,the author finds that the provisions of "damaging public interests" are not applied accurately in judicial practice from time to time,and the reason for these current situations is ultimately the vague concept of public interests.Therefore,it is necessary to clearly define and classify the public interest,summarize the identification standard of public interest and clearly define the public interest through legislation.The first part of this article starts from the application of the judicial organs to the judgment of the fourth item of Article 52 of the Contract Law,compares similar cases,sums up the judgment phenomenon,and explores the judgment rules of the judicial organs for the cases where the "social public interest contract" is deemed invalid.Through the induction of similar cases,the author found that the reasoning part of such judgment documents was mostly ignored.In the same case,after the first instance,the second instance and even the retrial,the courts at all levels have different recognition of public interest.The reason for this judgment phenomenon is that the connotation of public interest is unclear and the judgment standard of the court is unclear.The second part of this article starts with the connotation,characteristics and comparison with other similar concepts of public interest,and discusses the identification dilemma of public interest from the perspective of "Contract Law".The impact brought by this is a series of problems,such as the unclear basis of the claim right put forward by the plaintiff in the prosecution,the insufficient reasoning of the judicial personnel in the judgment,and the lack of demonstration of the judgment conclusion.The third part of this article classifies public interests into four types: public order type,public utility type,environmental protection type and public policy type by absorbing overseas experience,the viewpoints of other scholars and the summary of individual cases.However,typology,after all,cannot exhaustively list the types of public interests.Therefore,it may be a more effective way to summarize the identification standards of public interests and clearly define public interests through legislation.By drawing on the views of other scholars,the author concludes that there are three criteria for identifying public interests,namely,public benefits,integrity and non-profit.Whether it is the type of public interest or the identification standard of public interest,it will help the judicial and administrative organs to judge the public interest.However,it is a difficult problem in judicial practice for judicial and administrative organs to judge whether a certain interest belongs to the public interest.If the content of the public interest can be fixed by the legislature through legislation,then public officials will judge the public interest more accurately and consistently in judicial practice and administrative law enforcement.The people will also consider the public interest when concluding the contract to avoid unnecessary disputes.In the conclusion part,this article points out the innovation points,deficiencies and the author’s doubts,hoping that through the joint efforts of legal professionals in various countries,it will add more bricks to the research of public interests.