Comparative Study of New and Old German Debt Laws

Author: Qi Xiaokun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: The "Modernization of the Law of Obligations" effective from January 1, 2002, made the largest amendments to the German Civil Code since its promulgation. The revised parts primarily focused on the content related to performance obstacles in the law of obligations. First, the amendments to the general principles of the law of obligations regarding performance obstacles:
— The new law replaced the original law's structure, which was centered on the forms of performance obstacles, with a structure centered on legal consequences. To this end, it created the general factual element of "breach of obligation" as the starting point for various legal consequences, while also incorporating the original case law system of "positive claim damage" into this factual element.
— The original case law concepts of "loss of the basis of the transaction" and "negotiation liability" were codified into statutes.
— The content of the law on termination of contracts was more reasonable than the original law.
Second, the amendments to the specific rules of the law of obligations, including the law of sales contracts and the law of work contracts. Another important task of this reform was to incorporate several separate regulations on the law of obligations into the Civil Code, the specific content of which can be found in the appendix at the back of this book. Additionally, the new law completely reformed the statute of limitations system of the original law, as this fell outside the scope of this study and was therefore not discussed in detail. This paper aims to provide a valuable reference for the legislative work of China's Civil Code.