The question of whether the Chinese Civil Code should contain a separate General Principles of the Law of Obligation had triggered long and heated debate in the Chinese civil law circle, even in the entire Chinese law circle. This issue was finally settledwith the promulgation of the Chinese Civil Code. However, the Civil Code without General Principles of the Law of Obligation still has to use such terms of law obligation as “obligation” and “debt”. More importantly, how to appropriately apply the substantive norms of general principles of the law of obligation in the Civil Code in judicial practice has become a challenge faced by all legal professionals in China. This book, written by Professor Xie Hongfei and others, gives a systematic exposition on this issue: “The greatest contribution of the academic circle to the compilation of the Chinese Civil Code is to provide normative consensuses and intellectual resources. The practical goal of this research is also to seek the greatest possible consensuses on the general principles of the law obligation. This book is published as a part of National Achievements Library of Philosophy and Social Science.

The main author of this book, Professor Xie Hongfei, is a research fellow at CASS Institute of Law and the head of the Department of Civil Law, and director of the Center for Private Law Studies of the Institute; a professor anddoctoral advisor of the University of CASS. He was elected as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Jurists in China and one of Young and Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions in 2017. He has participated in the whole process of the drafting of the Chinese Civil Code and commended by the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress for his contribution to the drafting of the Code. He has published about 100 articles in such important journals and newspapers as China Social Sciences, Chinese Journal of Law and People’s Daily.