Explanation on the Draft Contract Law
关于《合同法(草案)》的说明
A report delivered at the Second Session of the Ninth National People's Congress on March 9, 1999 in Beijing
1999年3月9日北京 第九届全国人民代表大会第二次会议上提交报告
1. The Scope of Application
The Draft Contract law stipulates that a contract means an agreement whereby the subjects with equal status, that is, natural persons, legal persons and other organizations, establish, alter or terminate civil right - creating an obligatory relationship between them. This provision is made in accordance with the General Principles of the Civil Law: First, what the contact applies to is civil relationship between subjects with equal status. The administrative activities of the government to maintain economic order according to law come under the category of administrative relationship, not civil relationship and are therefore governed by administrative laws, not by the contract law; the internal managerial relationships of legal persons and other organizations are governed by laws on companies or enterprises, not by the contract law, either. Secondly, the contract law mainly governs the economic and trade relationship between legal persons and other organizations, at the same time including the contractual-legal relationship arising from marriage, adoption, guardianship, etc. are not governed by the contract law. Compared with that of the three existing contract laws, the scope of application of the Draft Contract Law is appropriately enlarged.
适用范围
合同法草案规定，合同是指处于平等地位的自然人、法人、其它组织之 间建立、变更、终止民事权利和义务关系的协议。这种规定与民法通则是一 致的。第一，合同法适用于处理平等主体之间的民事关系。政府依法维持经 济秩序的管理活动，属于行政范畴，不是民事关系，因此受行政法律的支配， 而不受合同法的支配，法人、其它组织的内部管理关系，受公司法或企业法 的支配，也不受合同法支配。第二，合同法主要处理法人和其它组织之间的 经济贸易关系，同时包括婚姻、收养、监护等的合法关系，不受合同法支配。 与其它三部现存合同法相比，合同法草案规定的适用范围有了适当扩大。
