On March 15, 2017, China's national legislature passed the General Provisions of the Civil Law, the opening chapter of a civil code planned to be enacted in 2020. The new law will take effect from October 1, 2017.

There are a number of features in the new General Provisions of the Civil Law.

No.1:Emphasis on public order and good moral
The current General Principles of Civil Law, Contract Law and Property Law all stipulate that civil subjects, when conducting civil activities, shall respect social ethnics and avoid damaging public interests and economic order. However, none of them have been mandatorily enforced. The newly passed provisions specifically listed "not violating public order and good moral" as a binding article of the civil law.

No.2: Requirement of energy conservation and environment protection
The general provisions 2017 included energy conservation and environment protection as one of basic principles for civil subjects. Waste of resource and harming the eco-environment shall be castigated to curb the crude development style, which provides institutional guarantee for the scientific and sustainable development.

No. 3: Protection of embryo rights
The General Principles in 1986 do not define embryos as nature persons in the legal sense, thus stripping their civil rights. The draft added clauses to protect the rights of embryos including inheritance and accepting grant. This is an extension of laws on protection of children’s rights, and will build a better environment for children's healthy development.

No.4: Special protection for minors' civil rights
Given the physical, psychological and mental features of minors, the general provisions stipulated special protection for minors' rights. For instance, the statute of limitations of requests for legal representatives for person with none or limited capacity for civil conduct shall be counted from the day of termination of said legal representatives. Also, the statute of limitations for compensation of sexual abuse on minors shall be counted from the day the victim turns 18 years old.

No.5: Designated will guardian
On the basis of previous guardianship forms, the draft added two new approaches, designated will guardian and guardian appointment through agreements. The provisions also state that the guardian should perform its duties in accordance with the principle that most benefit the person under the guardianship. This is an improvement and development of China's civil law supervision system.

No. 6: The "special legal person" system
A category of "special person" is included in the General Provisions, which will be regulated by specific chapters. As an innovation of China's legal person system, it is widely echoed.

No. 7: Civil responsibility priority
The draft expanded articles on civil rights. First, specific regulations are made on personal information protection; second, principled regulations are added on data and virtual property protection, leaving development space for institutional protection of such rights; third, the equal protection system is established and fourth, the civil responsibility priority is established.

No. 8: Wavier of responsibility for volunteer emergency assistance
The general provisions also specified the waiver of responsibility for volunteer emergency assistance. Damage on aided person due to volunteer emergency assistance is not subject to civil responsibility. This offers legal protection for righteous acts and volunteer assistance.

By Beijing Lawyers