Organized futures contracting

Futures markets play an important role in shifting risk and facilitating exchange. Yet despite their growing importance economists do not yet possess a satisfactory theory of the evolution and growth of futures markets.¹ In the law-and-economics literature there is an assumption that parties will seek to specify their obligations completely or else rely on the terms implied by contract law.² The idea that institutions will develop to deal with contractual problems (including the inefficiencies of contract law) has only recently been explored.³ Futures contracts are contracts designed to separate one aspect of exchange that is particularly susceptible to enforcement problems-price volatility. It does this in a way that allows little scope for the intervention of the formal legal rules of contract law since trading in and the resolution of disputes concerning futures contracts are governed by the rules of the exchange. In fact, many futures contracts, especially the newer varieties, may well be deemed wagering contracts and hence null and void under the usual rules of contract law.⁴In this article the structure of organized futures contracting will be examined to see how it deals with the enforcement problems that arise when exchange is subject to the risk of price volatility.⁵     

物业管理合同的性质及其法律适用

物业管理合同是我国现行立法肯认的一种有名合同,但因法律规定过于简陋、主体交易经验的积淀欠缺、市场发育不成熟等因素,再加上对该类合同相关问题理论认识不一,导致物业管理合同在履行过程中产生很多纠纷。讨论物业管理合同的法律性质,进一步确定其法律适用规则,在法律适用过程中充分体现对当事人意思自治的尊重,对妥当解决纠纷,彰显民法的基本精神,具有重要意义。     

论市场经济条件下高校“缠讼”和制度完善

市场条件下发生纠纷导致学校“缠讼”是中国高等教育发展和社会转型过程中出现的问题。审视高校纠纷,主要是合同纠纷和行政纠纷。针对高校纠纷的法律特点和原因,借鉴外国先进经验,参照国际政策审议惯例,完善高校管理制度,须从以下几方面入手:建立高校重大事件的审议机制,提高决策水平,防止纠纷的发生,实现依法治理高校的制度创新,建立科学的评价机制,将科学发展的观念落实到实处。     

商品房买卖合同纠纷及其仲裁解决之探讨

商品房买卖合同纠纷是房地产纠纷的一种重要类型,通过仲裁方式解决商品房买卖合同纠纷有其独特的优势。本文在归纳当前商品房买卖合同纠纷的主要类型及特点的基础上,对仲裁解决商品房买卖合同纠纷的优势、原则以及实践中碰到的几个争议问题进行了探讨。     

组织框架下表决权拘束协议的体系规制

凡是以股东表决权行使为标的的债权协议均为表决权拘束协议,其在实践应用中具有不同的形态与功能。对表决权拘束协议进行规制,不仅需要将其从不同合同类型中识别出来,更要厘清不同形态背后差异化的规制目的与法律对策。合同法、公司法、证券法共同构建了规制体系,三者各有侧重:合同法提供了概念与规则基础;公司法进行了组织价值与规则的填充;证券法通过其合并规则应对义务的规避,解决形式与实质的不一致问题。三者不可偏废:合同层面的纠纷解决不能脱离组织的特殊性而抽象地适用合同法规范;证券特别规制的妥当适用,也无法脱离其合同法与公司法的规范与概念基础。     

处理银行卡盗刷纠纷的法理基础及实务要点

对于银行卡盗刷纠纷的法律处理,在迄今为止的司法实践中基本是沿着合同法思路展开。这种惯常思路固然能够给当事人以法律安抚而致银行卡应用实践以法律秩序,但实际上是以耗损效率和弱化公正为代价的。银行卡是代表持卡人财产权利的资格证券,因其使用中权利人识别机制的特点,相关义务人的识别义务、归责模式及免责事由均有本属规则,并非通常合同法规则所能涵盖,如银行卡上的证券关系与据以形成的合同关系相分离,对卡权利人的识别义务与卡的占有状态及持卡人的过错无关等。因此在处理银行卡盗刷纠纷的司法实践中,应当把握银行卡作为权利凭证的法律性质及应用规则,以此作为伪卡盗刷与网络盗刷的本质区别,并由此展开银行卡盗刷案件的情形类别设定及相应处理规则。     

The political morality of convergence in contract

One of the most interesting recent developments in contract law has been an academic and political effort to integrate private law. The proposed Common European Sales Law was ultimately withdrawn, and a series of setbacks, including the British referendum to exit the EU, has recast the politics of convergence. But it remains an objective for many European scholars. This essay considers the wisdom of convergence on a single law of transactions from the perspective of philosophical contract theory. The essay proceeds by disaggregating the rights at stake in contract law. It characterises the formal right to contract and describes its moral impetus as one that should underwrite contract law in all states, especially liberal states. But the essay argues that the legitimate contours of the formal right are contingent on tenets of political culture that vary across Member States. Similarly, substantive regulation of contract is morally compulsory and serves universal interests; the essay takes regulation of permissible work and remuneration for work as examples. But the rules and standards that best advance those moral interests depend on economic facts specific to individual political communities. The essay concludes by arguing that contract law is a poor tool by which to accelerate political and economic convergence.     

论以订约目的为依据的合同分类

以订约目的为标准对合同进行分类具有理论与现实意义。合同当事人订立合同的目的大体可以分为四类:创设各种民商事主体的合同,如通过合同创设合伙、公司、中外合资经营企业等;创设各种民事权利的合同,如通过合同创设债权、物权、知识产权、身份权等;变更合同权利义务的合同,即通过合同对已经成立的合同进行变更;解决合同争议的合同,即通过合同解决民事争议。此四类合同各具特征。     

特殊医疗纠纷解决路径研究--对一般医疗纠纷解决路径的反思与突破

特殊医疗纠纷因其医患地位平等性而区别于传统意义上的一般医疗纠纷。在过去,一般医疗纠纷解决主要有合同和侵权两种路径,但以侵权路径为主。之所以如此,是因为合同路径不符合医方的角色定位,且难以帮助患者获得精神损害赔偿。然而,侵权路径亦有劣势,其难以涵盖整个医患关系,且无法解决医患实质平等。综合来看,解决纠纷审判宜采合同路径。主要理由有四:第一,合同路径能够适应特殊医疗纠纷基本特征。第二,合同路径并不排斥精神损害赔偿。第三,选择合同路径有助于《消费者权益保护法》适用的证成。第四,合同路径有利于促进医患形成"命运共同体",缓解医患矛盾。     

论当事人意思自治原则在涉外劳动合同中的适用空间——兼论我国涉外劳动合同法律适用立法的完善

随着国际投资、服务贸易和知识产权等领域的合作与交流不断深入,劳动者的跨境流动越来越频繁,近年来我国涉外劳动争议日益增多。由于劳动合同的特殊性,在确定我国涉外劳动争议案件的法律适用问题上,我国理论界和实务界有一些不同的看法,争议的焦点是当事人能否依据意思自治原则选择适用法律。涉外劳动合同是一种特殊的合同,当事人的意思自治应受到一定的限制。     

论商品房认购书的法律性质——以预约合同为视角

学术界以及实务界对商品房认购书的法律性质存在诸多的争议。解决此争议的关键在于界定预约的法律性质以及效力。显然,预约是一种区别于本约的独立的合同类型,适用我国《合同法》有关“无名合同”的规定。强制履行是承担预约违约责任的方式之一。对商品房认购书的法律性质不能僵硬的适用某一种学说,而是应该结合缔约时当事人的资质、目的以及认购书的具体内容等给予认定。     

On the Edge of the Law: Women's Property Rights and Dispute Resolution in Kisii, Kenya

Scholars have argued that economic efficiency requires a clear definition of the rights of ownership, contract, and transfer of land. Ambiguity in the definition or enforcement of any of these rights leads to an increase in transaction costs in the exchange and transfer of land as well as a residual uncertainty after any land contract. In Kenya, government efforts at establishing clearly defined property rights and adjudication mechanisms have been plagued by the existence of alternative processes for the adjudication of disputes. Customary dispute resolution has been praised as an inexpensive alternative to official judicial processes in a legally pluralistic environment. However, our research demonstrates that customary processes may also carry a monetary cost that puts them beyond the means of many citizens. This article compares the costs and processes of the formal and informal methods of property rights adjudication for women in the Kisii region of Kenya. The research results suggest that women have weak property rights overall, they have limited access to formal dispute resolution systems because of costs involved, and even the informal systems of conflict resolution are beyond the means of many citizens.     

Legal rights in data

It is now apposite to speak of the ‘data centric world’. Businesses are paying ever more attention to their own, and others’ data, as a way of adding value to the organisation and conferring competitive advantage. This in turn is focusing attention on legal rights in data across many business sectors, where we’re starting to see more disputes. Data is funny stuff in and of itself - effectively inert in legal terms. It is more precise to speak of ‘legal rights in relation to data’. Those rights are IP rights - copyright, database right, confidentiality, patents and trade marks - and contract rights. Each IP right has its own rules, and applying those rules to data leads to a complex, multi-layered analysis where the law is unsettled and uncertain. This means that data is an area where contract is very often king, so most businesses regulate access to data by means of a series of agreements. The most commonly contested points in negotiations are around licence scope, derived data, commingled data and post term use.     

论行政合同之功能与救济

行政合同兼有行政性与合意性的特征,其拓展了行政管理手段,有利于更好地实现行政目的及保护行政相对人的权利,具有控制行政权力、减少和避免行政纠纷的功能.因此,行政合同既要适用行政法,又要适用民法.大陆法系与英美法系国家对行政合同适用不同的救济方式.在我国,行政诉讼救济途径是行政合同救济的必由之路.     

“从契约到身份”——以船员劳务合同的特殊性及司法应对为视角

针对《中华人民共和国劳动合同法》《中华人民共和国船员条例》颁布后船员劳务合同纠纷案件中出现的新情况和面临的新问题,在分析当前相关立法、船员劳务关系现状以及一字之差的“劳务”与“劳动”合同对保护船员权益存在本质不同的基础上,认为船员不仅应当得到“契约”的保护,还应当基于劳动者“身份”得到劳动法的特殊保护.进而,针对船员劳务合同相比一般劳动合同的特殊性,从合同关系、主体、内容、责任和纠纷解决机制等方面提出司法如何予以应对的相应观点.     

论外商投资合同法律效力争议解决

本文所称外商投资合同法律效力争议,是一个较为宽泛的概念,它不仅包括外商在中国境内直接投资签署的中外合资/合作经营企业合同及其变更的法律效力所产生之争议,也包括外资并购合同法律效力产生之争议,还包括外商投资中企境外企业所签署的合同法律效力所产生之争议。本文意图通过对上述三种不同形式的外商投资合同法律效力所产生之争议的不同方面进行比较研究,从而找出正确的解决这些争议的方法,以供业内人士、仲裁员、律师参考。     

To Wonderland Through the Looking-glass: Conceiving a Critical Legal Argument for Contractual Justice in the South African Law of Contract †

The aim of this paper is to identify the possible substructure (looking glass/es) of a critical legal argument for contractual justice (Wonderland) in the South African law of contract. South African contract law still fails, ten years after the constitutional transformation, to reflect the constitutional ideals of freedom, equality and human dignity in an acceptable manner. I argue that this disposition places a question mark over the legitimacy of contract law and marginalizes opportunities for the social change envisaged by the Constitution. The paper explores Duncan Kennedy’s Form and Substance-argument and indicates that the reluctance to accommodate these values may be attributable to the fact that the majority of role-players position themselves on the individualism/rules side of Kennedy’s continuum – a paradigm that perceives the law of contract as a body of positivistic rules to be applied neutrally and regardless of the social or socio-economic distortions its application may generate. In an attempt to move away from this traditional approach, the privileged paradigm is criticised. A typical CLS-approach is followed which employs sociology, psychological jurisprudence and game theory to criticise the law from outside the restrictive realms of law itself. Simultaneously, I attempt to illuminate the argument for a shift (step through the looking glass) to another paradigm. I conclude that our judiciary finds itself in a position similar to that of Plato’s prisoners in the cave and will not reach the point where they apply relevant (constitutional) values directly to contractual disputes. The State is thus responsible for infusing contract law with contractual justice, by implementing legislation to this effect in order to limit the hegemonic consequences of the judiciary’s obsession with freedom of contract and utopian rules, which fail in reality to further the ideal of justice. Paper presented at the Critical Legal Conference, 4 September 2004, London, UK. This paper is dedicated to the memory of the late Judge of Appeal, Mr. Justice P.J. Olivier. The paper is based on research conducted for the thesis in partial fulfilment of the degree LLD in the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria under the title ‘A critical legal argument for contractual justice in the South African law of contract.’ The degree supervisor is Professor Karin van Marle in the Department of Legal History, Comparative Law and Jurisprudence. The author wishes to thank the following persons for valuable deliberations and input: Karin van Marle, Graham Bradfield and Anashri Pillay. In addition, the author wishes to acknowledge and thank the University of Cape Town for financially supporting this research. †Paper presented at the Critical Legal Conference, 4 September 2004, London, UK. This paper is dedicated to the memory of the late Judge of Appeal, Mr. Justice P.J. Olivier. The paper is based on research conducted for the thesis in partial fulfilment of the degree LLD in the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria under the title ‘A critical legal argument for contractual justice in the South African law of contract.’ The degree supervisor is Professor Karin van Marle in the Department of Legal History, Comparative Law and Jurisprudence. The author wishes to thank the following persons for valuable deliberations and input: Karin van Marle, Graham Bradfield and Anashri Pillay. In addition, the author wishes to acknowledge and thank the University of Cape Town for financially supporting this research. apply relevant (constitutional) values directly to contractual disputes. The State is thus responsible for infusing contract law with contractual justice, by implementing legislation to this effect in order to limit the hegemonic consequences of the judiciary’s obsession with freedom of contract and utopian rules, which fail in reality to further the ideal of justice.     

论清代徽州禁约合同——兼议与禁约告示、禁约碑之区别

中国古人习惯于用合同的方式来解决各种财产纠纷和社会矛盾。禁约合同是古代合同类型之一种,多是同族、同村人等为禁止盗窃、禁止砍伐树木、保护荫木来龙水口等事务,共同立约承诺并议定罚则的合同文书。部分禁约合同,由于请求官府支持,而转化成禁约告示、禁约碑,约束范围扩大、效力上升,已可视为乡规民约。禁约合同本身没有外部约束力,其内部约束力是传统合同"信"价值的表达。禁约合同是私人间由于财产的共有或公有产生一种调和权利纠纷的自发秩序,也是地缘社会维护生活安宁,将一些陋习予以禁止,共同约束自身和抵御外来侵犯的约定。然而,从禁约合同、禁约告示、禁约碑等的整个体系来看,禁约产生和运行是需要外部保证的,这种外部保证就是国家法或官方的支持。据此,禁约合同才能发挥基层社会调和权利纠纷的作用。     

中国船厂处理造船合同争议之对策

对合约法的生疏以及在合约履行方面的漏洞,导致中国船厂在因造船合同争议提起的伦敦仲裁中几乎无一胜诉。为扭转此种不利局面,在介绍造船合同仲裁案件的代表性争议的基础上,提出中国船厂处理造船合同争议时应区分不同事由,分别采取对策加以应对。     

劳动合同中的解约金问题研究

劳动合同是一种特殊类型的合同 ,当这一合同的一方当事人解除合同时 ,另一方当事人所遭受的损害难以事先预见。在这种情况下 ,合同中的解约金条款就缺乏合理的基础 ,也容易引起争议。为此 ,应当根据劳动合同的性质和特点对解约金的产生、表现形态和性质进行研究 ,从而找出解决有关争议的妥善办法。