| Summary: | 碩士 === 雲林科技大學 === 科技法律研究所 === 96 === After the Renaissance in Europe, the equal contract relation gradually replaced the status relation of class due to the revival of humanism which affirmed the personal worth. When capitalism rose following the Industrial Revolution, free competition and mass production by machines gave birth to the new economic life style; within this life domain, individual free has to be respected and under control of the principle of freedom and equality. “Freedom of contract” and “The focus on personal will and personality” evolved become the ultimate guideline in the field of private law which has been established the so-called “Private Law Autonomy” or “Principle of Personal Autonomy.”
In the modern society, life is closely linked to economic activities, and these activities usually have to be completed through “Contracts.” As a result, contract relation has become the cove of modern life. In respect of contracts in current American society, and discovered that 99% of the contracts were categorized as standardized ones. Looking back at the domestic situation, standard contract is also commonly utilized in various aspects, such as water, electricity, transportation, insurance, mortgage, lease, pledge and etc. The reality shows that the utilization of standard contractalmost completely dominates the current social life and replaced traditional common contracts accordingly.
The spirit of Freedom of Contract is expected to seek for fulfillment of the autonomous contract. However, when establishing contracts in real life, economically powerful parties often proclaim the freedom of contract but on the contrary force economically vulnerable parties to follow contract terms determined by them, which makes customers’ freedom of contract exist in name only. The extensive utilization of standard contract has made contracting become a unilateral right which is against trade autonomy and harmful to the natural justice of contract. Therefore, Taiwan government has enacted Consumer Protection Law in order to protect consumers, and hopefully can legally regulate standard contract. Nevertheless, how to explain and perform the law terms in order to meet requirements of the public is a very critical subject, and is also the focus of this research.
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