(Adopted at the Fourth Session of the Sixth National People's Congress on April 12, 1986 and promulgated by Order No. 37 of the President of the People's Republic of China on April 12, 1986)

Contents

Chapter I Basic Principles

Chapter II Citizen (Natural Person)

Section 1 Capacity for Civil Rights and Capacity for Civil Conduct

Section 2 Guardianship

Section 3 Declarations of Missing Persons and Death

Section 4 Individual Businesses and Leaseholding Farm Households

Section 5 Individual Partnership

Chapter III Legal Persons

Section 1 General Stipulations

Section 2 Enterprise as Legal Person

Section 3 Official Organ, Institution and Social Organization as Legal Persons

Section 4 Economic Association

Chapter IV Civil Juristic Acts and Agency

Section 1 Civil Juristic Acts

Section 2 Agency

Chapter V Civil Rights

Section 1 Property Ownership and Related Property Rights

Section 2 Creditors' Rights

Section 3 Intellectual Property Rights

Section 4 Personal Rights

Chapter VI Civil Liability

Section 1 General Stipulations

Section 2 Civil Liability for Breach of Contract

Section 3 Civil Liability for Infringement of Rights

Section 4 Methods of Bearing Civil Liability

Chapter VII Limitation of Action

Chapter VIII Application of Law in Civil Relations with Foreigners

Chapter IX Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I Basic Principles

Article 1 This Law is formulated in accordance with the Constitution and the actual situation in our country, drawing upon our practical experience in civil activities, for the purpose of protecting the lawful civil rights and interests of citizens and legal persons and correctly adjusting civil relations, so as to meet the needs of the developing socialist modernization.

Article 2 The Civil Law of the People's Republic of China shall adjust property relationships and personal relationships between civil subjects with equal status, that is, between citizens, between legal persons and between citizens and legal persons.

Article 3 Parties to a civil activity shall have equal status.

Article 4 In civil activities, the principles of voluntariness, fairness, making compensation for equal value, honesty and credibility shall be observed.

Article 5 The lawful civil rights and interests of citizens and legal persons shall be protected by law; no organization or individual may infringe upon them.

Article 6 Civil activities must be in compliance with the law; where there are no relevant provisions in the law, they shall be in compliance with State policies.

Article 7 Civil activities shall have respect for social ethics and shall not harm the public interest, undermine State economic plans or disrupt social economic order.

Article 8 The law of the People's Republic of China shall apply to civil activities within the People's Republic of China, except as otherwise stipulated by law.

The stipulations of this Law as regards citizens shall apply to foreigners and stateless persons within the People's Republic of China, except as otherwise stipulated by law.

Chapter II Citizen (Natural Person)

Section 1 Capacity for Civil Rights and Capacity for Civil Conduct

Article 9 A citizen shall have the capacity for civil rights from birth to death and shall enjoy civil rights and assume civil obligations in accordance with the law.

Article 10 All citizens are equal as regards their capacity for civil rights.

Article 11 A citizen aged 18 or over shall be an adult. He shall have full capacity for civil conduct, may independently engage in civil activities and shall be called a person with full capacity for civil conduct.

A citizen who has reached the age of 16 but not the age 18 and whose main source of income is his own labour shall be regarded as a person with full capacity for civil conduct.

Article 12 A minor aged 10 or over shall be a person with limited capacity for civil conduct and may engage in civil activities appropriate to his age and intellect; in other civil activities, he shall be represented by his agent ad litem or participate with the consent of his agent ad litem.

A minor under the age of 10 shall be a person having no capacity for civil conduct and shall be represented in civil activities by his agent ad litem.

Article 13 A mentally ill person who is unable to account for his own conduct shall be a person having no capacity for civil conduct and shall be represented in civil activities by his agent ad litem.

A mentally ill person who is unable to fully account for his own conduct shall be a person with limited capacity for civil conduct and may engage in civil activities appropriate to his mental health; in other civil activities, he shall be represented by his agent ad litem or participate with the consent of his agent ad litem.

Article 14 The guardian of a person without or with limited capacity for civil conduct shall be his agent ad litem.

Article 15 The domicile of a citizen shall be the place where his residence is registered; if his habitual residence is not the same as his domicile, his habitual residence shall be regarded as his domicile.

Section 2 Guardianship

Article 16 The parents of a minor shall be his guardians.

If the parents of a minor are dead or lack the competence to be his guardian, a person from the following categories who has the competence to be a guardian shall act as his guardian:

(1) paternal or maternal grandparent;

(2) elder brother or sister; or

(3) any other closely connected relative or friend willing to bear the responsibility of guardianship and having approval from the units of the minor's parents or from the neighbourhood or village committee in the place of the minor's residence.

In case of a dispute over guardianship, the units of the minor's parents or the neighbourhood or village committee in the place of his residence shall appoint a guardian from among the minor's near relatives. If disagreement over the appointment leads to a lawsuit, the people's court shall make a ruling.

If none of the persons listed in the first two paragraphs of this Article is available to be the guardian, the units of the minor's parents, the neighbourhood or village committee in the place of the minor's residence or the civil affairs department shall act as his guardian.

Article 17 A person from the following categories shall act as guardian for a mentally ill person without or with limited capacity for civil conduct:

(1) spouse;

(2) parent;

(3) adult child;

(4) any other near relative;

(5) any other closely connected relative or friend willing to bear the responsibility of guardianship and having approval from the unit to which the mentally ill person belongs or from the neighbourhood or village committee in the place of his residence.

In case of a dispute over guardianship, the unit to which the mentally ill person belongs or the neighbourhood or village committee in the place of his residence shall appoint a guardian from among his near relatives. If disagreement over the appointment leads to a lawsuit, the people's court shall make a ruling.

If none of the persons listed in the first paragraph of this article is available to be the guardian, the unit to which the mentally ill person belongs, the neighbourhood or village committee in the place of his residence or the civil affairs department shall act as his guardian.

Article 18 A guardian shall fulfil his duty of guardianship and protect the person, property and other lawful rights and interests of his wards. A guardian shall not handle the property of his ward unless it is in the ward's interests.

A guardian's rights to fulfil his guardianship in accordance with the law shall be protected by law.

If a guardian does not fulfil his duties as guardian or infringes upon the lawful rights and interests of his ward, he shall be held responsible; if a guardian causes any property loss for his ward, he shall compensate for such loss. The people's court may disqualify a guardian based on the application of a concerned party or unit.

Article 19 A person who shares interests with mental patient may apply to a people's court for a declaration that the mental patient is a person without or with limited capacity for civil conduct.

With the recovery of the health of a person who has been declared by a people's court to be without or with limited capacity for civil conduct, and upon his own application or that of an interested person, the people's court may declare him to be a person with limited or full capacity for civil conduct.

Section 3 Declarations of Missing Persons and Death

Article 20 If a citizen's whereabouts have been unknown for two years, an interested person may apply to a people's court for a declaration of the citizen as missing.

If a person's whereabouts become unknown during a war, the calculation of the time period in which his whereabouts are unknown shall begin on the final day of the war.

Article 21 A missing person's property shall be placed in the custody of his spouse, parents, adult children or other closely connected relatives or friends. In case of a dispute over custody, if the persons stipulated above are unavailable or are incapable of taking such custody, the property shall be placed in the custody of a person appointed by the people's court.

Any taxes, debts and other unpaid expenses owed by a missing person shall defrayed by the custodian out of the missing person's property.

Article 22 In the event that a person who has been declared missing reappears or his whereabouts is ascertained, the people's court shall, upon his own application or that of an interested person, revoke the declaration of his missing-person status.

Article 23 Under either of the following circumstances, an interested person may apply to the people's court for a declaration of a citizen's death:

(1) if the citizen's whereabouts have been unknown for four years; or

(2) if the citizen's whereabouts have been unknown for two years after the date of an accident in which he was involved.

If a person's whereabouts become unknown during a war, the calculation of the time period in which his whereabouts are unknown shall begin on the final day of the war.

Article 24 In the event that a person who has been declared dead reappears or it is ascertained that he is alive, the people's court shall, upon his own application or that of an interested person, revoke the declaration of his death.

Any civil juristic acts performed by a person with capacity for civil conduct during the period in which he has been declared dead shall be valid.

Article 25 A person shall have the right to request the return of his property, if the declaration of his death has been revoked. Any citizen or organization that has obtained such property in accordance with the Inheritance Law shall return the original items or make appropriate compensation if the original items are no longer existent.

Section 4 Individual Businesses and Leaseholding Farm Households

Article 26 "Individual businesses" refers to businesses run by individual citizens who have been lawfully registered and approved to engage in industrial or commercial operation within the sphere permitted by law. An individual business may adopt a shop name.

Article 27 "Leaseholding farm households" refers to members of a rural collective economic organization who engage in commodity production under a contract and within the spheres permitted by law.

Article 28 The legitimate rights and interests of individual businesses and leaseholding farm households shall be protected by law.

Article 29 The debts of an individual business or a leaseholding farm household shall be secured with the individual's property if the business is operated by an individual and with the family's property if the business is operated by a family.

Section 5 Individual Partnership

Article 30 "Individual partnership" refers to two or more citizens associated in a business and working together, with each providing funds, material objects, techniques and so on according to an agreement.

Article 31 Partners shall make a written agreement covering the funds each is to provide, the distribution of profits, the responsibility for debts, the entering into and withdrawal from partnership, the ending of partnership and other such matters.

Article 32 The property provided by the partners shall be under their unified management and use.

The property accumulated in a partnership operation shall belong to all the partners.

Article 33 An individual partnership may adopt a shop name; it shall be approved and registered in accordance with law and conduct business operations within the range as approved and registered.

Article 34 The operational activities of an individual partnership shall be decided jointly by the partners, who each shall have the right to carry out and supervise those activities.

The partners may elect a responsible person. All partners shall bear civil liability for the operational activities of the responsible person and other personnel.

Article 35 A partnership's debts shall be secured with the partners' property in proportion to their respective contributions to the investment or according to the agreement made.

Partners shall undertake joint liability for their partnership's debts, except as otherwise stipulated by law. Any partner who overpays his share of the partnership's debts shall have the right to claim compensation from the other partners.