On July 15, 2020, the thirteenth lecture of Civil Code Forum of Wuhan University, hosted by Wuhan University School of Law, was held. This is also the end of this series of lectures.

Prof. Sun Xianzhong, a member of the Constitution and Law Committee of the National People’s Congress, Executive Vice President of the Civil Law Research Institute of China Law Society, Member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, researcher of Institute of Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and doctoral tutor, gave the thirteenth lecture on the theme of “Major Issues and Innovations in the Codification of the Civil Code”. The lecture was moderated by Prof. Feng Guo, Dean of Wuhan University School of Law.

Prof. Feng expressed his sincere thanks to the speakers gave the lectures, and introduced Prof. Sun’s academic background and outstanding contributions on the codification of the Civil Code. Prof. Feng also extended his deep gratitude and respect for Prof. Sun’s concern and support to Civil and Commercial Law research in Wuhan University.

Prof. Sun expressed his gratitude for being invited to give the lecture. On the issue of many people advocate the Civil Code as a declaration of rights, Prof. Sun held that the Civil Code is a basic, overall and practical law. Based on this, he explained from the following five aspects:

The first part is “The understanding on the system and theory of codification of civil code”. The National People’s Congress decided not to codify the Civil Code in 2009. Prof. Sun held that although China has already set a civil law system, there are great system and ideological defects within. Only when it becomes a harmonious and orderly system can it promote the unification of legal judgment standards and restrict the judicial arbitrariness. Therefore, Prof. Sun successively put forward proposals for the compilation of the civil code in 2013 and 2014 as a deputy to the National People's Congress.

As the core law of civil law, “General Principles of Civil Law” were formulated in 1986, which played a splendid role in reform and opening up. But it was drafted in the context of the planned economic system, and could not play a commander-in-chief role in current civil and commercial law system already. Therefore, Prof. Sun put forward two suggestions in his proposal: to re-enact the general provisions of civil law and to compile the civil code on the basis of integrating other laws

The second part is “Issues on civil legal act”. The legal act theory originated in the period of the humanism revolution, solved the legitimacy of legal rights, and emphasized the true will of the parties. Soviet law implemented the requirements of the planned economic system, and civil legal act must be recognized on the basis of legal norms. The General Principles of Civil Law in China do not emphasize the autonomy of the parties, and it has been revised in the Civil Code (Article 133).

In addition, the integration of marriage law into the Civil Code made the legal act theory applicable to marriage and family. Previous marriage laws recognized autonomy, but it was not thoroughly implemented. Article 1049 of the Civil Code has made a breakthrough on this situation.

The third part is “Innovative provisions of personal rights”. The theory of general personality right was put forward by German scholar Otto von Gierke. Article 109 of the Civil Code provides for the protection of personality rights.

In the context of China's current civil code compilation, we should also pay attention to Article 109 when we realize the significance of the independent compilation of personality right. In other words, we must deal with the relationship between general personality right and specific personality right under Article 109.

The fourth part is “The arrangement of the principle of distinction”. Prof. Sun believed that the contract performance conditions cannot be used as effective conditions of contract, and this theory was adopted in the property law in 2007.

Prof. Sun also introduced four considerations for the division of real right and creditor's rights: Property law should be applied to the change of real right, not contract law; Real right changing can be divided into action on legal and action on non-legal; Real right changing on legal can be divided into real right changing for real estate and for movable property; In the case of general principles, exception rules should be established, in particular under the real estate registration rules, to recognize the effect of changes in property rights that occur in non-registered situations.

In the contract law, the legal basis of the establishment of the contract has been developing slowly. The deletion of article 51 of the contract law and article 597 of the Civil Code are the important embodiment of the principle of distinction.

The fifth part is “Issues on the property right of legal person of public law”. Prof. Sun believed that the Civil Code has reformed the rights of legal persons of public law, especially the rights of state-owned property, changed the previous theory of the unity of state property ownership, and solved the problem of the legal order of public property (Articles 96, 255, 256, 257, 268 and 269).

Prof. Feng held that Prof. Sun’s promotion played a key role in the compilation of Civil Code, and we need to thank and appreciate the civil law scholars represented by Prof. Sun.

Prof. Meng Qinguo thought that Prof. Sun is a scholar who stands by his position and research point of view. At the period the Civil Code is about to come into effect, how to understand the Civil Code will certainly be controversial, but protecting the people’s personal and property rights is the real goal and evaluation criteria of the Civil Code.

Finally, Prof. Feng once again expressed his gratitude to Prof. Sun for his wonderful speech, and announced that the series of lectures successfully completed.

The Civil Code is the grand code of running the country well and giving the people peace and security. Wuhan University School of Law is committed to publicizing the popularization of the Civil Code, and promoting the implementation of the great strategy of comprehensive rule of law in depth.

Edited by Yuan Yuhang & Wu Liuqing