Understanding and Determination of “Inability to Achieve the Purpose of the Contract”

In 2021, China promulgated the Civil Code. There are 11 expressions in 7 articles of contract concerning “Contract purpose”, the first paragraph of article 563 of the civil code stipulates that “The purpose of a contract Cannot be achieved”. On the one hand, because the legal and judicial interpretation does not define the meaning of “The purpose of the contract” clearly, which leads to great differences in the understanding of it in specific cases. On the other hand, the criteria for determining whether the purpose of the contract cannot be achieved are also inconsistent, which makes the judgment result of similar cases may be different between different courts, and affects the unity and authority of law. Based on the current law and judicial practice of our country, this paper discusses the problems related to “The failure to realize the purpose of the contract”, and combines the relevant systems of common law system and civil law system, thus, the standard of “The non-realization of the purpose of the contract” is formed.