【作者】 李凤琴；

【导师】 刘晓红；

【作者基本信息】 华东政法大学 ， 国际法， 2011， 博士

【摘要】 国际私法上的“国际合同”,是指由于合同中跨国因素的存在,从而涉及到不同国家立法管辖权或不同国家之间法律选择的合同。本文所称的国际合同指的是国际民商事合同,但不包括涉及家庭关系的诸如婚姻、监护、继承而产生的合同,也不包括与海关、税收或行政事务有关的合同。国际合同法律适用制度经历了一个漫长而复杂的演变过程。13世纪受意大利法则区别说的影响,国际合同主要受合同签订地法支配,16世纪杜摩林提出了意思自治学说,直至19世纪许多国家在立法与司法实践中正式确立了意思自治的主导地位,而后受英国国际私法理论的影响,进入了以意思自治原则为主,最密切联系原则为辅的“合同自体法”阶段。在这一历史发展过程中,意思自治原则历经几百年的发展,目前已经成为国际上确立合同准据法的首要原则,最密切联系原则作为意思自治原则的重要补充。然而,现代合同冲突法理论中的意思自治原则虽然与杜摩林的观点存在相似之处,但是经过历史发展,已经存在着实质的不同,其在发展过程中不断地丰富其内涵,拓展其外延。由于国际合同法律适用涉及问题较为庞杂,本文所探讨的国际合同法律适用的发展趋势是以意思自治原则的发展为中心的,而且考虑到欧洲与美国的冲突立法所具有的代表性,本文主要是以欧美国家的立法与司法实践作为比较对象。本文将在国内外学者研究的基础上,利用历史研究方法、比较研究方法分析欧美国家在意思自治原则和最密切联系原则的发展上所呈现出的共同趋势,并采用法哲学研究方法(从正义角度)以及法经济学方法(从效率角度)分析国际合同法律适用出现趋同化的缘由,以便能更准确地预测未来的发展趋势。全文分七章,围绕着意思自治原则以及最密切联系原则,对国际合同法律适用制度进行了比较研究,总结出其共同的发展趋势,分析趋同化的缘由,并对我国相关立法及司法实践作出评述,最后借鉴国际趋势提出改善的建议。第一章回顾了国际合同法律适用制度的发展历史,从法则区别说时代的场所支配行为开始,演进到杜摩林的意思自治说,直至后来出现的合同自体法说,我们可以得出这样的结论,国际合同法律适用制度经过漫长的发展阶段,已经完全抛弃传统僵硬的属地冲突规则,转而适用较为灵活开放的冲突规则。即意思自治原则已成为各国解决国际合同法律适用的首要规则,最密切联系原则是意思自治原则的补充规则。第二章分析了国际合同法律适用制度的统一化进程。主要介绍了欧盟合同之债法律适用的统一化、美洲国家间合同之债法律适用的统一化以及海牙国际私法会议在统一国际合同法律适用制度上所做的努力和成就。从介绍的几个地区公约到海牙国际私法会议正在进行中的国际合同法律适用的统一化运动,我们可以看出,国际合同法律适用制度正从区域统一化向全球统一化迈进,也正表现了国际合同法律适用制度的趋同化将更加明显。第三章比较分析了欧美国家关于意思自治原则在普通合同领域扩张的各种表现并分析其出现趋同化的缘由。国际社会正逐步放宽“国际合同”的认定标准,甚至允许纯国内合同选择外国法;放宽当事人选择法律的方式,允许当事人采用“明示”或“默示”的方式选择准据法;逐渐放宽对当事人选择法律的时间限制,并逐步放弃“实质性联系”要求;而且,晚近在国际立法中不允许当事人选择“非国家法”的状态正在改变。然而,世界各国关于意思自治在普通合同领域的发展上呈现出逐渐放松限制的共同趋势并不是偶然的,而是可以从冲突法的正义价值和效率价值角度探究出意思自治在普通合同领域呈现的放松趋势的缘由。意思自治原则能实现冲突法所追求的冲突正义和实体正义目标,最大限度地满足当事人的需要,因此,只要当事人选择法律不违反公共利益和其他第三人的利益,就无需对其进行限制。同样意思自治原则能实现冲突法的冲突效率和实体效率,经济学上的外部性理论能够为是否应当扩张当事人的意思自治提供合理的理由。第四章分析了欧美国家立法在特殊合同领域对当事人意思自治所做的限制。在欧盟,消费合同当事人的法律选择不得剥夺消费者惯常居所地国法律中强制规则给予消费者的特殊保护,雇佣合同当事人的法律选择不得剥夺当事人未选择法律情况下本应适用的准据法,保险合同当事人的法律选择则限定在一定的范围内,其目的在于保护弱势方当事人的利益。而美国立法并没有明确对消费合同、雇佣合同以及保险合同当事人意思自治作出特别限制,然而在司法实践中,法院利用公共政策排除不利于弱方当事人的法律选择条款,从而使弱方当事人的利益得到实际保护。欧美国家立法与司法实践呈现出的对特殊合同当事人意思自治加强限制的共同趋势,亦可以从正义与效率角度进行分析。从正义角度,需要通过对弱者利益的保护以实现冲突法的实体正义,这必然要对当事人的意思自治作出适当限制才能保证有利于弱者的法律得到适用。从效率角度分析,由于特殊合同中当事人之间可能出现信息不对称的问题,从而可能导致机会主义行为的发生。此时,如果完全承认当事人的意思自治是不具有经济效率的,需要从法律上限制当事人的意思自治,排除这些情况的发生,从而使意思自治的适用仍能达到法律上的效率目标。第五章在分析强制规则含义的基础上,重点论述了法院地强制规则、外国强制规则对当事人意思自治的影响。强制规则是不依赖于当事人意志而必须适用于当事人行为的规则。目前,一国法院适用法院地强制规则限制当事人的意思自治无可非议,但是法院是否考虑外国的强制规则从而对当事人的意思自治进行限制则不同国家存在不同的做法。美国立法中没有强制规则制度,而是采用公共政策制度达到相同目的,但是我们也看到了美国立法中引入“强制规则”的努力。本章还分析了公共政策对当事人意思自治的限制。由于公共政策概念和范围的不确定性,各国立法与司法实践的趋势是,限制公共政策的适用,从而能最大程度地保障当事人的意思自治。强制规则和公共政策对当事人意思自治限制体现出的共同趋势,可以从正义与效率角度作出解释。从正义角度,当事人选择的法律与一国立法所要保护的国家政策或公共利益相违背时,此时冲突法的正义价值是无法实现的,需要加以限制。从效率角度,法律选择导致的负外部性可以解释对意思自治进行限制的理由。第六章作为意思自治原则的重要补充,最密切联系原则也是本文的研究对象。本章在分析最密切联系原则发展历史的基础上,分析了最密切联系原则的发展趋势,即限制法官的自由裁量权,将最密切联系原则进行适度“硬化”,并突出选法的阶梯性,以达到法律适用灵活性与稳定性的统一。究其原因,可以从正义和效率角度进行分析。从正义角度,限制法官的自由裁量权可以确保当事人正当期望的实现,从而更好地实现冲突法的正义价值;从效率角度,为防止最密切联系原则在确定合同准据法上的低效率运作,需要各国在立法阶段完成对最密切联系地的确定,至少应该限制法官在确定最密切联系地上的自由裁量权,以增加因法律适用的确定性和可预见性所带来的收益。第七章总结了国际合同法律适用制度的发展趋势,在此基础上本章首先分析了我国立法与司法解释关于合同法律适用制度的规定及存在的不足,重点分析了2007年的有关涉外合同法律适用的司法解释以及2010年《涉外民事关系法律适用法》的相关规定;其次在选取国内司法实践中关于涉外合同法律适用的典型案例的基础上,分析了法院在具体运用合同法律适用制度上的不足,最后在借鉴国际合同法律适用发展趋势的基础上,针对立法与司法实践中的不足提出了改进我国相关制度的建议。更多还原

【Abstract】 “International Contracts”in international private law refers to the contract which involves legislative jurisdiction and different choices of law between different countries because of the trans-frontier element. The international contracts mentioned in this paper are referred to the international civil or commercial contracts which do not include contracts concerning marriage, guardianship, heritage, customs, taxes or administrative affairs.The application of law system to international contracts has experienced a long and complicated evolution process. Affected by the Italian Statute Theory in the 13th century, the law applicable to international contracts is mainly dominated by the lex loci contracts. In the 16th century, the theory of party autonomy was proposed by Charles Dumoulin. In the 19th century, the principle of party autonomy became the main stream after repetitive practice of legislation and judicature in many countries, and then influenced by British choice of law theory, a new phase called“proper law of a contract”came. In this new phase, the principle of party autonomy was still the dominant stream but was assisted by the doctrine of most significant relationship. So, this theory experienced several hundred years of development. Now, it has developed into the first principle to deal with the applicable law to international contracts and the doctrine of most significant relationship is an important supplement. Although there are similarities between the principle of party autonomy and Charles Dumoulin’opinions, essential differences still exist and even expand with the development of society. Because the law applicable to international contracts is complicated, the development trend of the law applicable to international contracts is based on the principle of party autonomy. Considering the representativeness of conflict of law in Europe and America, this paper cites the practice of legislation and jurisdiction as the comparison object. This paper, on the basis of researches by abroad and domestic scholars, analyzes the common trend of the principle of party autonomy and the doctrine of most significant relationship in Europe and America by use of historical research method and comparative research method. This paper also analyzes the reason for the convergence of the application of law to international contracts from the philosophic perspective (justice) and economics perspective (efficiency) so as to estimate the future trend more definitely.This paper is divided into seven sections. Based on the principle of party autonomy and the doctrine of most significant relationship, this paper makes a comparative analysis of the law applicable to international contracts, and summers up the common development trend and analyzes the reason for convergence. The practice of legislation and jurisdiction in our country is evaluated here and improving advices are proposed on the basis of the international trend in this paper.In the first section, the developing history of the law applicable to international contracts is introduced. From the principle of locus regit actum proposed in the Statute Theory times to the principle of party autonomy by Charles Dumoulin to proper law of a contract, we can conclude that after long time of development, the application of law system to international contracts has already totally discarded the traditional territorial conflict rules and adopted flexible conflict rules. That is to say the principle of party autonomy has become the first principle for countries to deal with the law applicable to international contracts, and the doctrine of most significant relationship has become the supplementary rule to the principle of party autonomy. In the second section, the unification process of the law applicable to international contracts is analyzed. This section mainly introduces the unification of the law applicable to contract in EU, the unification of the law applicable to contract in inter-America, and achievements made by Hague Conference on Private International Law in terms of the undergoing application of law system of international contracts. From the regional conventions introduced in this paper and the unification process mentioned above, we can see that the application of law system of international contract has already transformed from regional unification to global unification, which indicates that convergence trend is much more obvious.In the third section, the situation of the principle of party autonomy expanding in the common contract area is analyzed and the reason why it is assimilated is also analyzed. The international society is gradually relaxing the accreditation criteria of“international contract”, allowing domestic contracts to choose foreign rules, relaxing the way for concerned parties to choose law, allowing concerned parties to choose the proper law through“expressing”or“implying”, relaxing the time limit to concerned parties in terms of choosing law, and generally abandoning the request of“substantive relation”. In the past, the parties concerned can not choose“non-state law”, but the situation changes now. Another thing that needs attention is that many countries think that this kind of trend is not occasional, and the reason can be explained from the perspectives of justice value and efficiency value of the conflict law. The principle of party autonomy can realize the conflict justice and substantive justice goals perused by the conflict rules and fulfill the requests of parties concerned to the largest extent, therefore, if the law chosen by parties concerned does not violate public interest and other people’interest, it will not be limited or forbidden. Similarly, the principle of party autonomy can realize the conflict efficiency and substance efficiency of the conflict rules. The externality theory of economics can provide evidence for party autonomy. In the fourth section, the limits to party autonomy in the special contract area in Europe and America are analyzed here. In EU, the law chosen by parties concerned in the consumer contract must not deprive the consumer of the protection afforded to him by the mandatory rules of the law of the country in which he has habitual residences. The law chosen by parties concerned in the employment contract must not deprive the employee of the protection afforded to him by the mandatory rules of the law which would be applicable in the absence of a choice of law. The law chosen by parties concerned in the insurance contract is limited to a certain scope in order to protect the interest of the disadvantaged party. The American legislation does not pose any special limits to party autonomy in the consumer contract, employment contract and insurance contract. However, in juridical practice, the court protects the interest of the disadvantaged party through invalidating the choice-of-law clauses by use of public policy doctrine.The common trend of stronger limits to party autonomy in special contracts showed in the legislation and jurisdiction practice in Europe and America can be analyzed from the perspective of justice and efficiency. From the justice perspective, the interest of disadvantaged party will be protected to realize the substance justice of conflict rules. Therefore, the party autonomy should be limited to some extent to ensure the application of law in favor of the disadvantaged party. From the efficiency perspective, because of the possible information asymmetry existing in the party concerned of special contracts, opportunism actions may happen. At the same time, if the party autonomy is considered not having any economic efficiency, then it should be restricted in the form of laws so as to make the application of party autonomy achieve its efficiency goals.In the fifth section, on the basis of mandatory rules, this section puts emphasis on party autonomy posed by mandatory rules of countries whose court as the forum court, whose law as the applicable law. Mandatory rules are the rules that dominate the behavior of the parties and are independent of parties. At present, different countries will adopt different attitudes when it comes to foreign mandatory rules imposed on parties concerned. There are no mandatory rule terminology in American legislation, actually public policy doctrine are adopted to achieve the same goal. But we can still see that American legislation has already made great efforts to introduce in“mandatory rules”.In this section, restrictions imposed by public policies to party autonomy are also analyzed. Because of the uncertainty of public policies conception and scope, the trend of the practice of legislation and jurisdiction in many countries is that the public policy should be limited to maximize the party autonomy.We can also explain the common trend from the perspective of justice and efficiency. From the justice perspective, if the law chosen by parties concerned violates the national policies or public interest protected by legislation in one country, then the justice value of the conflict rules can not be realized and needs to be limited. From the efficiency perspective, negative externality brought about by the choice of law can be explained as the reasons for party autonomy restrictions.In the sixth section, as the important supplement of the principle of party autonomy, the doctrine of the most significant relationship is the research object of this paper. On the basis of analyzing the doctrine of the most significant relationship, this section analyzes the development trend of this theory, that is, to limit the discretion rights of judges, stiffen the doctrine of the most significant relationship to some extent, and highlight the ladder reform of choices so as to achieve unification of flexibility and stability of the application of law. As for this, we can analyze the reason from the perspective of justice and efficiency. From the justice perspective, restriction to the discretion rights of judges can ensure the realization of legitimate expectations so as to bring the justice value of conflict rules into full play. From the efficiency perspective, in order to prevent the low-efficient operation of the doctrine of the most significant relationship, countries should complete the determination of the place of most significant contacts in legislative stages, at least, they should impose restrictions to the discretion rights of judges so as to increase the benefit brought by certainty and predictability of the application of law.In the seventh section, the development trend of the application of law system to the international contract is concluded here. And on the basis of this conclusion, regulations and insufficiencies existing in the applicable law to contract in China’s legislation and judicial interpretation are analyzed. This section also analyzes judicial interpretation applied to contracts with a foreign element in 2007 and relevant regulations in“PRC Law on the Application of Law to Foreign-related Civil Relations”in 2010. Then, on the basis of the typical case of applicable law to foreign-related contracts in judicial practice, this section analyzes insufficiencies of the court in specifically applicable law to contract. At last, on the basis of the development trend on the application of law system to international contract, this section proposes relevant advices on national systems according to insufficiencies of the legislation and the jurisdiction practice.更多还原