2021年民事法發展回顧

Developments in the Law in 2021: Civil Law

本文以2021年我國民事實體法的立法與司法發展為論述對象。2021年民事立法活動，有民法總則編、債編、親屬編部分條文修正，分別涉及成年年齡從20歲調降為18歲、男女訂婚年齡統一規定為17歲、男女結婚年齡統一規定為18歲、法定最高利率從週年百分之20調降為週年百分之16、夫妻剩餘財產平均分配有失公平時法院調整或免除分配額標準的具體化等。整體而言，修正幅度雖然不大，但多屬立法政策重要更動，影響廣泛深遠。 至於以最高法院裁判為主的民事司法活動，案例多元豐富，問題層出不窮，見解不斷演進，廣泛涉及民事法各次領域重要議題，對民事法理論形成或實務應用，有卓著貢獻。限於篇幅，本文捨棄債權物權化及民事責任法2個議題，僅選擇法律行為、租賃契約、不當得利、優先購買權等4個議題，分析介紹其中值得注意的最新實務見解。

This article reviews the major developments of Taiwanese civil law in 2021. It mainly focuses on the legislative amendments and judicial practices. By the modifications of some provisions of the Civil Code Part I General Principles, Part II Obligations and Part IV Family, the majority age has been reduced to eighteenth year of age, the betrothal age has been unified as seventeenth year of age equally for a male and female, the marriage age has been unified as eighteenth year of age equally for a male and female, the statutory limit of interest rate has been reduced to 16 percent per annum, and the conditions and reference factors for the court to adjust or waive the share of distribution of the remainder property upon dissolution of the statutory marital property regime, when the equal distribution appears unfair, have been clarified in details. As regard to the judicial practices, the Supreme Court judgments proposed many creative opinions in order to cater to the social changes. They made a considerable number of inspiring decisions concerning diverse issues of civil law. The main issues dealt with by the Court concerned as followed: effect of a contract opposable to a third party, contractual and tortious liabilities and their compensation regime, juridical act (esp. violation of mandatory regulations and formalities for a juridical act), lease(esp. duration of leasing a land for building a house when the period of lease is not specified), unjust enrichment (esp. the scope of its application and the concept of prejudice), right of first purchasing (esp. the owner and object of the right of first purchasing and the liability for its infringement) etc. Due to the limit of pages, this article only deals with the latter 4 issues. From these decisions, the Court demonstrated how they adapted to the changing needs of modern society.