英文摘要 |
"Chinese law currently has no clear answer to the question of restitution for unjust enrichment involving illegal and void contracts. The prevailing position in both common law and civilian jurisdictions, despite minor discrepancies, is the ''all or nothing'' approach, represented by the system of illegality defence to unjust enrichment. Although the draft provision specifically on the illegality defence has been deleted in the final version of the Chinese Civil Code, the ''all or nothing'' approach nevertheless re-mains to be the general rule for illegal and void contracts in Chinese law by an extensive interpretation of Article 985. By contrast: in the context of shareholding entrustment, the position in Chinese commercial law is ''apportionment'' of restitution between the enrichee and the aggrieved party, which derives from the Supreme People's Court's position in handling issues of illegal and void shareholding entrustment. This position is based on an extensive interpretation of Article 58 of the Contract Law, and is qualified by the existence of investment appreciation, and by the non-application of forfeiture. The application of the special rule of ''apportionment'' in the context of illegal and void shareholding entrustment can be justified by a range of factors, namely, the very recent development in English law regarding its shift from formalism to consequentialism, the principle of proportionality modified by quantitative ideas, and the existence of the parties' management activities in shareholding entrustment. These factors also demonstrate why such special rule of ''apportionment'' should not be upgraded to replace the general ''all or nothing'' rule, therefore applies to all kinds of illegal and void contracts. Whether ''all or nothing'' or ''apportionment'' is applied, the scope of restitution for unjust enrichment shall not, in principle, cover the use value of money." |