European Contract Law and its Interaction with Tort Law and Property Law

Author: (German) Bal
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: How to coordinate and unify the private law systems of EU member states is a fundamental issue concerning the "Four Freedoms" (freedom of movement of persons, goods, services, and capital across borders) of the EU's established member states. In response, the EU's approach is to first establish a minimum common standard of private law among member states through regulations or directives, and then gradually move towards a unified EU civil code. This book is an important milestone research achievement that emerged under this broader context. It takes the aforementioned "Four Freedoms" as a standard and comprehensively examines the current contract law and tort law in EU member states, as well as the interactive relationships between contract law and property law. In other words, it investigates whether there is disharmony or even conflict between contract law, tort law, and property law within a country and between countries. In this sense, the research conclusions and methods of this book also hold significant reference value for the improvement of China's private law system. Whether the contract law and tort law, as well as the contract law and property law, within a country are harmonious, whether there are normative conflicts or normative gaps, is itself a matter that should be given high importance when drafting and formulating a civil code. In fact, there are logical connections between contract law, tort law, and property law in terms of their intrinsic value systems and normative systems. Therefore, contract law, property law, and tort law are not isolated from each other but form a normative and value whole based on the general principles of civil law. From the perspective of research methods and approaches, only by interpreting contract law, tort law, and property law holistically can one see the full picture of civil law. From a legal theory standpoint, this book is also a model work that applies the "holistic interpretation" concept of American legal theorist Dworkin to private law, and an excellent empirical example of the "self-creating system" legal view as seen by German legal theorist Teubner. From the perspective of research objectives and conclusions, this book also holds reference significance for the formulation of China's civil code. How should China's civil code be structured? Should it be based on individual freedom and rights, or on state will and power? This is a fundamental choice of stance. If the stance is not clearly defined, not only will contract law and property law fail to serve as safeguards for individual fundamental freedoms, but the entire civil law system will also oscillate between individual freedom and state intervention in terms of its intrinsic values. From the research conclusions, how to view the interactive relationships between contract law, tort law, and property law—for example, what logical connections exist between the reservation of ownership in contract law and property law—is an unavoidable issue for China's civil law codification and systematization. It is clear that while the research subject of this book is the private law of EU member states, its research foundation, approach, and conclusions hold reference significance for China, especially under the backdrop of economic globalization. How China's private law can coordinate and interact with foreign and international private law (such as the CISG) is self-evidently of great significance. The Chinese version of this book was translated collectively by some faculty and graduate students from Southwest University of Political Science and Law, organized by me.