臺灣民法誠信原則之實務發展

The Development of Court Decisions on Good Faith in Taiwan Law

誠信原則為民法的帝王條款，作為契約解釋的基礎，適用於債權的請求權、物上請求權及契約解除權等。誠信原則的機能，乃法官為個案適用法律，為符合公平正義之要求，介入私人間權利義務關係，而對於行使權利及履行義務，進行調整、補充與限制的法律基礎。權利失效原則、禁止矛盾行為、妨礙相對人行使權利、調整契約內容及補充法律規定或法律關係，均屬誠信原則的具體適用類型。就定型化契約的審閱期間、信用卡被冒用的危險負擔、信用卡附卡持有人之連帶清償責任等，法院均適用誠信原則，作為認定定型化契約條款是否有效之法律依據。

The principle of good faith is the emperor’s clause of the civil code, which is the foundation of interpretation of contract and is applicable to right to claims, right to claim a thing, and right to termination of contract. The function of good faith is to moderate, supplement, and restrict the legal relationship between private parties when they exercise their rights or perform their duties, under the judge’s application of good faith principle so as to reach a fair and just conclusion in specific cases.  The cases under the application of good faith is categorized into the following types: the principle of invalidity of rights, estoppel, intervention in the exercise of the other party’s rights, moderation of contract, and supplement of the laws. With regard to standardized contract terms, the good faith is applied to the required period of time for reviewing a contract, the misuse of credit cards, and the pay-off liability of a co-holder of a credit card.