訴訟外民事紛爭解決程序中公平合理原則之適用——以金融消費評議事件之運用為中心

The Application of the Fair and Reasonable Principle in Alternative Dispute Resolutions: Focused on Financial Consumer Disputes Decided by Ombudsmen

公平合理原則於我國民事程序法及訴外紛爭解決程序中，不乏具體體現之規定，例如：民事訴訟法第377條之1第3項、第436條之14、強制執行法第1條、鄉鎮市調解條例第19條、政府採購法第6條、仲裁法第31條等，其作用及於實體及裁判等不同層次，包括契約解釋、法律適用、基於公平考量之例外限制規定、舉證責任分配、證據調查等。我國金融消費者保護法第20條第1項參考英國金融評議人制度，明定評議機構應依公平合理原則作成決定，鑑於金融商品服務多樣化及金融消費爭議之特殊性，英國金融消費評議機構就公平合理原則發展出有別於法院依法裁判之操作模式，本文藉由案例類型化之比較分析，分從責任成立、責任範圍及程度，評估如何適用公平合理原則，並歸納出操作標準供實務參考之用。

Several expressions regarding the fair and reasonable principle exist both in the Civil Procedural Law and out-of-court alternative dispute resolutions. For example, Section 3 of Article 377-1 and Article 436-14 of the Civil Procedural Law, Article 1 of the Compulsory Enforcement Law, Article 19 of the Town Ship of Mediation Law, Article 6 of the Government Procurement Law, Article 31 of Arbitration Law, etc. The principle’s function lies across substantial laws as well as judicial adjudications, including contract construction, application of law rules, exceptional limitation based on fairness consideration, allocation of burden of proof, evidence investigation, etc. Referencing to the financial ombudsman scheme in the UK, the Section 1, Article 20 of Taiwan’s Financial Consumer Protection Law expressly stated that the financial ombudsman’s decision should be made based on the fair and reasonable principle. Due to the variety of financial products and characteristics of financial disputes, the Financial Ombudsman Service (UK) has developed specific practice when handling financial disputes, no matter the court will make the same judgment or not. Through comparative case study with typology methods, the essay evaluates under what circumstances and to what extent the fair and reasonable principle should be applied when imposing liabilities to financial institutions. Several inductive operation standards are then given for practice use.