The essence of the civil code is

The Civil Code is an encyclopedia of social life, a guide to action and a code of conduct for economic and social activities, which concerns everyone, every family and every enterprise, so it is widely concerned by all sectors of society. Compiling the Civil Code is a major legislative task determined by the CPC Central Committee and a milestone in the construction of the rule of law in China. On May 28th, 2020, the Third Session of the 13th National People's Congress voted to pass the Civil Code of People's Republic of China (PRC), which marked that China entered the era of civil code from the era of single-line civil law. The Civil Code consists of ***7 parts 1260, which are general provisions, property rights, contracts, personality rights, marriage and family, inheritance, tort liability and supplementary provisions. The total number of words exceeds 65438+ 10,000.

(a) Overview of Part VIII

In the steps of compiling the civil code, we adopt a two-step mode of compiling the general rules first and then compiling them separately. The General Principles of Civil Law was adopted and implemented on 20 17. The general provisions of this civil code have not changed much, but some provisions have been revised according to the requirements of codification and systematization. Highlights of general principles: highlights of general principles of civil law;

1. The fetus has the right to inherit. Involving the protection of the interests of the fetus such as inheritance and acceptance of gifts, the fetus is regarded as having the capacity for civil rights. However, if the fetus has died during childbirth, its capacity for civil rights does not exist from the beginning. (Article 16)

2. Eight-year-old children can "play soy sauce". Minors over the age of eight are persons with limited capacity for civil conduct, and they are represented by their legal representatives or recognized and ratified by their legal representatives, but they can independently carry out civil legal acts that are purely beneficial or suitable for their age and intelligence. (Article 19)

3. It is necessary to monitor the disabled elderly. An adult who can't fully recognize his own behavior is a person with limited capacity for civil conduct. When carrying out a civil juristic act, he is represented by his legal representative or recognized and ratified by his legal representative, but he can independently carry out a purely profit-making civil juristic act or a civil juristic act suitable for his intellectual and mental health. (Article 22)

4. Grassroots mass autonomous organizations are special legal persons. Residents' committees and villagers' committees have the legal personality of grass-roots mass autonomous organizations and can engage in civil activities needed to perform their functions. If a village collective economic organization has not been established, the villagers' committee may act as the authority of the village collective economic organization according to law. (Article 101)

5. Personal information and network virtual property are protected. Personal information of natural persons is protected by law. Any organization or individual who needs to obtain other people's personal information shall obtain and ensure the information security according to law, and shall not illegally collect, use, process or transmit other people's personal information, or illegally buy, sell, provide or disclose other people's personal information. (Article 111)

If the law has provisions on the protection of data and network virtual property, those provisions shall prevail. (Article 127)

6. Being courageous without gross negligence does not bear civil liability. If the infringer damages himself by protecting the civil rights and interests of others, the infringer shall bear civil liability and the beneficiary may give appropriate compensation. If no infringer or infringer escapes or is unable to bear civil liability, and the victim requests compensation, the beneficiary shall give appropriate compensation. (Article 183)

If voluntary emergency rescue causes damage to the salved person, the salvor shall not bear civil liability. (Article 184)

7. The statute of limitations is extended to three years. The limitation period for requesting protection of civil rights from the people's court is three years. Where there are other provisions in the law, those provisions shall prevail. (Article 188)

8. Minors who have been sexually assaulted can still sue like adults. The limitation period for claiming damages due to sexual assault of minors shall be counted from the date when the victim reaches the age of 18. (Article 19 1)

(B) Seven highlights of the real right series

1. A new accessory system is established. Attachment refers to the combination of things with different owners to form inseparable things or things with new attributes. The Civil Code stipulates three forms of attachment: processing, attachment and mixing, such as goods processing, material making, building attachment and building decoration. (Article 322)

2. Separation of powers-the right to operate land has come. In order to meet the needs of land management right entering the market after the separation of the three powers, the provisions of land management right have been added in the property right series of the civil code, and the provisions that the right to use cultivated land cannot be mortgaged have been deleted. (Articles 399, 36 1 and 363)

3. Improve the system of differentiated ownership of buildings. Appropriately lower the voting threshold for matters decided by owners, especially the use of maintenance funds for buildings and their ancillary facilities, and increase the special procedures for using maintenance funds in emergencies. (Articles 278 and 28 1)

4. Refine the automatic renewal rules of residential construction land use rights. The civil code stipulates that the right to use residential construction land will be automatically renewed when it expires, which is conducive to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of housing property owners. The Property Law stipulates that the maximum service life is 70 years. If you continue to use it, you need to sign another contract and pay the fee. Do you want to pay the fee, how much, etc. Will be stipulated by separate laws and administrative regulations authorized by the Civil Code. (Article 359)

5. The right of residence is incorporated into the law to make full use of this right. In order to speed up the establishment of a multi-agent supply and multi-channel housing security system, the usufructuary right of "residence right" is added, and it is clear that the residence right is established free of charge in principle, and the obligee has the right to occupy and use other people's houses according to the contract or the will registration to meet their stable living and living needs. (Part II, Chapter XIV)

6. Unify the registration system of chattel pledge and right pledge. The content of the specific registration institution of chattel pledge and right pledge in the Property Law has been deleted, leaving room for the establishment of a unified registration system of chattel pledge and right pledge in the future. (Articles 402 and 427)

7. Expand the scope of the guarantee contract. In order to optimize the business environment and provide legal protection, the Civil Code has further improved the system of real right for security on the basis of the current property law, defined the guarantee functions of atypical guarantee contracts such as financial leasing, factoring and ownership retention, and added the provisions that guarantee contracts include mortgage contracts, pledge contracts and other contracts with guarantee functions (Article 388, paragraph 1).

(III) Six Highlights of the Contract Compilation

1. Electronic contract opens the paperless era. In order to adapt to the rapid development of e-commerce and people's growing demand for online shopping, the Civil Code stipulates that data messages also have legal effect, which means that paper contracts will gradually withdraw from the Internet era. (Article 5 12)

2. Have a good reason to say no to the bully. In recent years, in the field of passenger transport contracts, passengers occupy seats and do not cooperate with carriers to take safety measures, which seriously disturb the transport order and endanger the transport safety. The Civil Code specifies the rights and obligations of the parties to passenger transport contracts in detail. (Articles 8 15 1, 8 19 and 820)

3. Say "no" to the overlord clause of the merchant. The Civil Code "No drinks are allowed" and "Special offers and promotional items are not refundable" has improved the standard clause system. (Articles 491st, 495th to 498th)

4. Don't be afraid of property disputes, the property service contract will protect rights. In view of the outstanding problems in the field of property services, the Civil Code has added provisions on property service contracts to provide legal basis for ordinary people to solve property disputes. (Part III, Chapter 24)

5. "Borrow 10,000 and pay back 100,000". Don't be afraid of online lending. In view of the problem of usury, which has been strongly reflected by all walks of life in recent years, the draft clearly stipulates that high-interest lending is prohibited and the lending rate shall not violate the relevant provisions of the state. (Article 680 1)

6. When the house was auctioned, where was the tenant's home? In order to implement the requirement of the Party Central Committee to establish the same right rent and purchase system and protect the interests of the lessee, the Civil Code has added the provisions of the lessee's preemptive right. (Article 734, paragraph 2)

In addition, in order to meet the needs of the development of China's factoring industry and optimize the business environment, the Civil Code has added a factoring contract (Chapter 16, Part III); In order to further strengthen the protection of creditors, the Civil Code refines the system of creditor's rights transfer and debt transfer, increases the rules of debt settlement and offset, and improves the system of contract termination such as contract cancellation (Chapter V of Part III). On the basis of summarizing the practical experience of the current contract law, the Civil Code has perfected the sales contract (Articles 622, 623, 64 1 to 643) by perfecting the provisions of the inspection period and the rules of ownership reservation. In order to meet the needs of practice, the Civil Code has absorbed the provisions of the guarantee law on the rules of guarantee and deposit, increased the guarantee contract, and improved the liability system for breach of contract (Part III, Chapter XIII, Articles 586 to 588).

Seven highlights of personality right series

The independent compilation of personality right is the core highlight of the protection of personality right in civil code.

1. Establish the basic rules of organ donation. In view of the phenomenon that organizations or individuals force, cheat and induce human organ donation, the Civil Code stipulates that if a person with full capacity for civil conduct agrees to donate organs, it shall be in written form or in the form of a will. If the natural person did not express disapproval of the donation before his life, his spouse, adult children and parents may decide to donate in writing after the death of the natural person. (Article 106)

2. Preventing sexual harassment: defining the responsibilities of institutions, enterprises and schools. In recent years, sexual harassment has become a hot topic of social concern. Some surveys show that this problem is widespread in enterprises, schools and other units, and crowded public places such as subway stations, buses and restaurants are also places where sexual harassment occurs frequently. In this regard, the Civil Code stipulates the criteria for determining sexual harassment and the obligations of organs, enterprises, schools and other units to prevent and stop sexual harassment. (Article 10 10)

3. The right to name and the expansion and protection of the right to name. Very clear pen name, stage name, screen name and so on. , with a certain social popularity, is used by others enough to confuse the public, with reference to the relevant provisions of the application and protection of the right to name. (Article 10 17)

4. Illegal collection of personal information is prohibited. In view of the problems of using information technology to "deeply forge" other people's portraits and voices, infringing on other people's personality rights and even endangering public interests, it is stipulated that any organization or individual is prohibited from using information technology to infringe on other people's portrait rights. (article 10 19).

5. "Title Party" and "Follow the Wind Party" may bear civil liability. Provisions are made on the civil liability of actors involved in news reporting, supervision by public opinion, and the determination of whether the actors have fulfilled their reasonable verification obligations (articles 1025 and 1026).

6. Invasion of privacy is specific. With the development of the information age, the means of infringing the right to privacy are more and more hidden and diverse. This time, the Civil Code keeps pace with the times, defines the privacy, and lists the specific behaviors that prohibit the infringement of others' privacy. (Articles 1032 and 1033)

7. Openness of the connotation of personal information. Clarify the principles and conditions that should be followed in handling personal information, build a framework of basic rights and obligations between natural persons and information processors, reasonably balance the relationship between protecting personal information and safeguarding public interests, and stipulate that state organs and their staff have the obligation to protect the privacy and personal information of natural persons. (Articles 1034 to 1039)

(v) Eight Highlights of Marriage and Family Compilation

1. Cooperate with the adjustment of the national family planning policy. The Civil Code changed the requirement that the adopter must have no children to the requirement that the adopter has no children or only one child. (Article 1098 1)

2. If there are loopholes in adoption, the Civil Code will escort it. In order to further strengthen the protection of the adoptee's interests, "illegal and criminal records that are not conducive to the healthy growth of the adoptee" are added to the adopter's conditions. (Item 4 of Article 1098)

Divorce is too impulsive and can be withdrawn within 30 days. In order to reduce the "hot-headed" divorce, the Civil Code stipulates a 30-day divorce cooling-off period after filing an application for divorce registration. During this period, either party can withdraw the application for divorce from the registration authority.

There is another way to divorce. In view of the phenomenon of "long mediation without judgment" in divorce proceedings, the Civil Code stipulates that after the people's court ruled that divorce is not allowed, if both parties have been separated for one year and one party divorces together again, the divorce shall be allowed and the other party shall be free.

5. Illness was deleted as the cause of invalid marriage. The Civil Code no longer regards "suffering from medical diseases unsuitable for marriage" as a circumstance prohibiting marriage, but stipulates that if one party conceals a major disease, the other party may request the people's court to cancel the marriage and have the right to claim damages. (Articles 1053 and 1054)

6. There are many divorce debts, and the law will distinguish them. According to the needs of social development, the Civil Code defines the scope of joint debts of husband and wife. The debts incurred by one of the spouses in his own name during the marriage relationship that exceed the needs of family daily life are not joint debts of husband and wife. However, the creditor can prove that the debt is used for the husband and wife's life, production and operation, or based on the same meaning of both husband and wife. (Article 1064)

7. The custody of children under two years old in divorce cases is no longer controversial. In order to enhance operability, the Civil Code revised the principle of "nursing children with nursing mothers" stipulated in the current marriage law to "children under two years old are directly raised by their mothers".

8. Standardize the litigation of confirmation and denial of parent-child relationship. If there are objections to the parent-child relationship and there are justified reasons, the father or mother may bring a lawsuit to the people's court to request the confirmation of the parent-child relationship. (Article 1073)

(6) Inherit the six highlights of the series

1. Expand the scope of heritage. The Civil Code has deleted the previous enumeration of heritage, and summarized it as "legal property", thus expanding the scope of heritage. With the development of modern society, the types and forms of citizens' property are increasingly rich and increasing, and new types of property such as virtual property can be included in the scope of heritage. (Article 122)

2. Loss of inheritance right and bequest right can be "recovered". The civil code increases the loss of inheritance rights and supplements the leniency system. The decedent knows that the heir has committed corresponding illegal acts against him, but he is willing to forgive the fault of the heir and restore his lost inheritance right, and his will should be respected. (Article 125)

3. Expand the scope of nephew's legal heir. In order to transfer more property to consanguineous families instead of the state, the Civil Code extended subrogation inheritance to the case that the decedent's brothers and sisters died before the decedent, making the decedent's nephew and niece the second legal heirs, breaking through the original restriction of direct blood relatives of the younger generation. (Article 128)

4. Add new forms of printing and video recording wills. Two kinds of legal wills have been added to the Civil Code: paper wills and video wills. (Articles 1 136 and 1 137)

5. Abolish the priority rule of notarized wills. In order to respect the true will of the testator, the Civil Code has revised the provisions on the validity of the will and deleted the provisions on the priority of notarized wills in the current inheritance law, so as to better protect the principle of party autonomy in civil law. (Articles 1 135 and 1 14 1)

6. Increase the property manager system. In order to ensure the proper management and smooth division of the estate, and better safeguard the interests of the heirs and creditors, the system of estate administrator has been added, and the ways, responsibilities and rights of estate administrator have been defined. (Article 145)

(VII) Seven Highlights of Tort Liability

1. Establish the "adventure" rule. Voluntary participation in cultural and sports activities with certain risks causes damage to other participants, and the victim shall not require other participants who have no intention or gross negligence to bear tort liability. (Draft article 1 176, paragraph 1)

2. To stipulate the system of "self-help behavior". If it is clear that the legitimate rights and interests are infringed and the state organs cannot protect them in time in case of emergency, and the legitimate rights and interests will be irretrievably damaged if measures are not taken immediately, the victim may take reasonable measures such as seizing the infringer's property within the necessary scope to protect his legitimate rights and interests, but he shall immediately request the relevant state organs to deal with it. (Article 177)

3. Strengthen intellectual property protection. Intentionally infringing on the intellectual property rights of others, if the circumstances are serious, the infringed person has the right to request corresponding punitive damages. (Article 185)

4. Improve the responsibility of producers and sellers to recall defective products. If recall measures are taken in accordance with relevant regulations, producers and sellers shall bear the necessary expenses incurred by the infringed. (Article 1206, paragraph 2)

5. Standardize the doctor-patient relationship and protect patients' privacy. Further protect patients' right to informed consent, clarify the relevant explanation obligations of medical staff, and strengthen the protection of patients' privacy and personal information by medical institutions and their medical staff. (Articles 12 19 and 1226)

6. Strengthen the protection of ecological environment. The punitive compensation system for ecological environmental damage is stipulated, and the rules of restoration and compensation for ecological environmental damage are clearly stipulated. (Articles 1232, 1234 and 1235)

7. Improve the high-altitude parabolic governance rules. It is forbidden to throw things from buildings. At the same time, the main difficulty in dealing with such incidents is that the perpetrator is difficult to determine. It is emphasized that the relevant competent departments should investigate in time according to law to find out the responsible person, and stipulate that building managers such as property service enterprises should take necessary safety measures to prevent such behaviors. (Article 1254)