Dutch Civil Code - (Book 3.5.6)

Author: Wang Weiguo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features:
Part 3: General Principles of Property Law. Compared to the current civil law system (in fact and any other civil law system), Part 3 has undergone significant changes. "General Principles of Property Law" includes two aspects of principles:
On one hand, some traditionally partially regulated in contract law and partially in inheritance law issues are now included in Part 3. These issues share a common point—they all involve property law in a broad sense. First, the concept of legal acts is addressed: general requirements for valid formation (agreement, capacity); protection of persons relying on the apparent validity of the agreement in good faith; conditions and periods; effects of legal acts that violate laws, good customs, or public order; conversion and partial invalidity: defects in agreement; fraudulent conduct by creditors; some forms of legal remedies, approval, and confirmation. Second, the part of agency law in the current legislation that constitutes an inconsistent and confusing part of the agency contract is rewritten in Part 3 (except for specific provisions on authorization to act on behalf of legal persons).
On the other hand, corporeal and incorporeal things have no fundamental differences in nature, so rules that involve both types of things are combined and stipulated in the same part. Thus, a large number of matters that have been regulated in property law since Roman law are transferred to Part 3, including the transfer of corporeal and incorporeal things; possession; co-ownership of certain rights in rem that can be subject to corporeal or incorporeal things, such as the right of use, mortgage rights that transfer or do not transfer possession; priorities, liens; as well as general explanations of property, things, fruits, parts of things, and rights of division, along with relevant general rules, particularly those concerning the public registration ledger of immovable property.
Part 5. Rights in rem over corporeal things, or "rights in rem," are stipulated in Part 5. This part covers movable and immovable property, statutory easements, customary easements, and some types of rights in rem derived from ancient Dutch law that cannot be found in the French Civil Code. As mentioned earlier, some rights in rem have been included in Part 3 because they are not limited to corporeal rights; these rights are referred to as "divisible rights." For this reason, the rights in rem in Part 5 form their own category.
Part 6: General Principles of Obligation Law. Obligation law is separately stipulated in Parts 6, 7, and most of Part 8 of the code. Part 6 contains the general principles of obligation law, which is divided into 5 sections. Section 1, "General Principles of Obligation Relations," applies to all obligations (regardless of their source). Many of the provisions in these sections are new, such as the general provisions of natural obligations, most provisions concerning compound obligations and joint claims, an independent chapter on the delay of creditors, and chapters on the consequences of the performance and non-performance of obligations. Here, a separate chapter is also set aside for damages, which applies to both contractual and non-contractual liability, to coordinate a series of legal consequences of contractual non-performance and unlawful acts. In addition, this part includes a chapter on the obligation to pay a fixed amount of money, the key of which lies in the principle of face value, postal money orders, statutory interest on delayed payment, and foreign exchange debts.