Draft of the Civil Code of China with Explanatory Notes · Tort Liability Chapter · Inheritance Chapter

Author: Liang Huixing, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-12-01
Features: Tort law is fundamentally a remedial law, serving as a civil remedy when people's legitimate rights and interests are infringed upon. Therefore, it falls under mandatory provisions, and parties are not allowed to agree to exclude its application. However, the rights and obligations arising from torts are essentially the same as those arising from contracts, thus both belong to the law of obligations, known as the debt of tort. The distinction between the debt of tort and the debt of contract lies in that the former is a statutory debt, while the latter is an optional debt. Nevertheless, both possess the same nature of rights, being relative and claim rights, with shared essence and effects. Their transfer, modification, fulfillment, extinction, as well as divisible and indivisible claims, generic and specific claims, selective debts, separate debts, and joint debts, all follow the same rules, i.e., the general provisions of the law of obligations. Therefore, in most legislative practices, the rules of torts are stipulated in the general provisions of the law of obligations in the civil code.
Inheritance law stipulates the basic rules for the transfer of property after a natural person's death, and inheritance rights are property rights based on blood or kinship relationships. As a crucial part of the civil code, inheritance law should naturally be included as a separate section of the civil code.
Tort law is fundamentally a remedial law, serving as a civil remedy when people's legitimate rights and interests are infringed upon. Therefore, it falls under mandatory provisions, and parties are not allowed to agree to exclude its application. However, the rights and obligations arising from torts are essentially the same as those arising from contracts, thus both belong to the law of obligations, known as the debt of tort. The distinction between the debt of tort and the debt of contract lies in that the former is a statutory debt, while the latter is an optional debt. Nevertheless, both possess the same nature of rights, being relative and claim rights, with shared essence and effects. Their transfer, modification, fulfillment, extinction, as well as divisible and indivisible claims, generic and specific claims, selective debts, separate debts, and joint debts, all follow the same rules, i.e., the general provisions of the law of obligations. Therefore, in most legislative practices, the rules of torts are stipulated in the general provisions of the law of obligations in the civil code.
Inheritance law stipulates the basic rules for the transfer of property after a natural person's death, and inheritance rights are property rights based on blood or kinship relationships. As a crucial part of the civil code, inheritance law should naturally be included as a separate section of the civil code.