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III. GPCL
Chapter 1: Basic Principles
This chapter provides several principles of civil law, such as equality, fairness, etc. the most important function of these principles are that according judicial practices they can be applicable law when there is no specific rules governing the dispute related.
Chapter 2: Natural Persons 自然人
This chapter defines natural persons with full capacity, with limited capacity and without capacity according to age or mental status. It also prescribes the procedure to declare missing person or death.
Note is taken that persons whose age are or over 18 have full capacity; persons whose age is less than 10 have no capacity; between are persons with limited capacity. (Art. 11, 12 GPCL)
Chapter 3: Legal Persons 法人
Legal persons include corporation, join venture, governmental offices and social organisation.
(1) Corporation
As regards the types of corporation in China, note is taken that in last five years, corporation law has been changed for three times. The latest version of corporation was published in last year, 2005. Three types of corporations are established by the new corporation law, which are public limited liability company, private limited liability company, one-person company and state-owned company.
The difference between public limited company and private limited company is that public limited company can be a listed company in stock market whereas private limited company cannot.
One-person company is a new type of company supplemented by 2005 corporation law. One-person company refers to a company with only one shareholder, whether a natural person or a legal person, however a natural person can only establish one one-person company.
State-owned company is a company whose shareholder is the state.
(2) Joint venture
Join ventures are another type of legal person. The law of join venture was published in 1997. The difference between join venture and corporation is that join venture bears joint and unlimited liability, whereas corporation limited liability.
(3) Governmental offices
The civil act of government is governed by the Governmental Procurement Law 2002. This law prescribes the ways by which the government can take civil acts. Generally speaking, the civil act of government must obey the rules of civil law, especially contract law.
Chapter 4: Civil Juristic Acts and Agency 民事法律行为，代理
After entering into effect of the related provisions in Contract law, the application of this chapter is increasingly limited. The reason is that the related provisions in contract law changed the provisions of GPCL. I will briefly mention it in the introduction of Chinese contract law.
Chapter 5: Civil Rights
Section 1: Property Rights 物权
Property rights are governed by Only 13 articles which are still effective. Those articles just repeat the related context in Constitution Law.
Section 2 Creditors'' Rights 债权
Publication of contract law makes this section no longer in force.
Section 3 Intellectual Property Rights 知识产权
Presently China already has copyright law, patent law and trademark law. So this section is out of date at all.
Section 4 Personal Rights 人身权
8 articles constitute Chinese personal law. Without doubt these articles are too general to be applied. Since 2003, Supreme Court published a judicial interpretation concerning personal rights. Unfortunately, it is also unspecific.
Chapter 6: Civil Liability (Liability of Breach of Contracts and Liability of Tort) 民事责任（违约责任，侵权责任）
The provisions of liability of breach of contracts have been substituted by Contract Law.
The provisions of liability of tort are still effective. Tort means a wrongful act, other than a breach of contract, which leads to damage without legal justifications. Nevertheless, like the provisions of property law and personal law, tort law is another concern of the draft of civil code.
Chapter 7: Limitation of Action 诉讼时效
This chapter prescribes limitation of action, which means that if not taking action in certain period your rights will not get legal protection.
The period concerned is two years beginning at the time the entitled person knows or should know that his rights have been infringed (Art. 137 GPCL). Under certain conditions, this period can be extended (see, Art. 139 GPCL).
Chapter 8: Application of Law in Civil Relations with Foreigners （Conflict Law 冲突法）
(1) If the international treaty provides otherwise, the international treaty applies. (Art. 142 GPCL)
(2) The ownership of real estate shall be bound by the law of the place where it is situated. (Art. 144 GPCL)
(3) If the parties have not made a choice of the law applicable to settlement of their contractual disputes, the applicable law is the law most closely connected to the contract concerned. (Art. 145 GPCL)
(4) Tort is governed by the rules of the country where the tort takes place. If both parties have the same nationality, the tort is governed by the law of their own country. (Art. 146 GPCL)
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