Wang Zejian's Collected Works of Law (Volume 13: Principles of Tort Law - Unjust Enrichment)

Author: Wang Zejian
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-09-01
Features: Preface The Chinese University of Political Science and Law compiled and edited this work in a complete volume format for convenience of use, reference, and preservation. Sincere gratitude is expressed to all colleagues at the publisher for their assistance and hard work. The first eight volumes of this complete work, "Civil Law Doctrine and Case Studies," were completed between 1975 and 1992, reflecting the author's teaching and research experiences at the Department of Law, National Taiwan University. This period was a key phase in the development of Taiwan's Civil Code. The author applied legal methods to analyze and examine the reasoning of important judgments, uncovering and interpreting the legal principles embedded in specific cases, and constructing a theoretical framework. To a certain extent, these eight volumes reflect the process by which the Civil Code has evolved to address issues arising from socio-economic changes, how laws are interpreted and applied, how loopholes are filled, and how new institutions are created. They document the history of the theoretical development of the Civil Code. "Civil Law Thinking and Case Studies" aims to establish a theoretical framework for the basis of civil claims, holding practical significance for legal methodology. The thinking method for the basis of civil claims has been widely adopted by the legal community and practice, helping to study the Civil Code in a more systematic and step-by-step manner, enhancing the rigor, transparency, and objectivity of argumentation, and providing a more objective basis for evaluating the reasonableness of legal interpretation and application. "Civil Law Essentials," published in 2002, primarily serves as a basic textbook for those learning civil law, as well as an introductory guide and comprehensive review. This book concisely explains the value and philosophy of civil law, introduces important civil law systems, and provides some statistical data to help readers gain a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between civil law and daily life, as well as to cultivate legal thinking and argumentation skills. "General Principles of Civil Law," "General Principles of Obligations," and "Civil Property Law" discuss the content of civil law, explain controversies in its interpretation and application, and explore its development trends. Among them, the general principles of obligations have the nature of a specialized work, especially "Unjust Enrichment," which reexamines and comprehensively interprets hundreds of cases using typological theory, combining the functions of a textbook and case law. This represents a new attempt in writing methodology. The section on special torts in "Tort Law" still awaits supplementation. "Damages" is a core issue in civil law and is currently being actively compiled. The greatest wish is to write a work on the Taiwan Civil Code and social change, and it is hoped that it can be completed as soon as possible. Although the content and style of the complete work of civil law vary, what they share is a commitment to combining theory and practice, adopting the thinking method of the basis of claims, highlighting issues and disputes through cases, and using comparative law to explore various normative models as references for interpretation and application. Years of research in civil law have made me more deeply aware that civil law is people-centered, rooted in the theory of freedom and equality, and safeguards human value and dignity. Striving for civil law is a struggle for human freedom, equality, value, and dignity. Thirty years of writing have been a long and arduous process. I am sincerely grateful to my teachers, colleagues, classmates, and readers for their encouragement and support. I especially want to thank my family's love and tolerance, especially the blessings and grace of God, which have enabled me to continue learning and working in peace and joy. June 2, 2003, 65th birthday preface written in Taipei Preface The first edition of this work, "Unjust Enrichment," was published in 1990. In 2000, I wrote a long preface, comprehensively discussing the changes in cases and doctrines since then. This is a comprehensive revision, incorporating recent practical cases, supplementing new literature, reexamining controversial issues, strengthening theoretical arguments, and adding appendices, increasing the volume by more than 200 pages. Although I have strived for completeness, errors and omissions are inevitable. I welcome readers' corrections. Regarding unjust enrichment, the current Civil Code provides five abstract and general provisions (79 to 83), since the implementation of the Civil Code, the Supreme Court has issued 72 judgments, with related rulings numbering in the thousands (please refer to the "Judicial Yuan" website for judicial data retrieval), accumulating a wealth of valuable experience and wisdom, making unjust enrichment law a living law. This book aims to organize and analyze cases and doctrines, constructing a theoretical system for unjust enrichment law. Originally, I planned to write another book on unjust enrichment case law, selecting relevant judgments from the Federal Court of Germany for comparison, in order to conduct comparative research and gain a deeper insight into the actual operation of unjust enrichment law, as well as to understand different judicial styles and argumentation methods. The difficulty of this work was greater than expected, so it is temporarily set aside, and the compiled case system of unjust enrichment law will be included as Appendix (1) to provide a comparative reference with the content of this book, allowing it to serve a dual function of teaching and case law. This is a new attempt in methodology, hoping to combine theory and practice, which will be helpful for the research and development of unjust enrichment law.