Considerations for Restriction on the Right of Rescission in Case of Obviously Minor Breaches

Whether,and how,to rescind the right of one party(the non-breaching party)to rescind a contract in case of an obviously minor breach by the other party(the breaching party)is a recurring topic in the field of contract law.The Minutes of the Ninth Work Conference of the Courts Nationwide on Civil and Commercial Trial(the Minutes of the Ninth Work Conference)stipulates that whether a contract shall be rescinded depends on whether a breach is obviously minor and affects the fulfillment of the contract purposes expected by the non-breaching party.In juridical practice,however,there are no clear criteria to define what constitutes obviously minor breaches,and the factors considered in such cases are often inadequate to allow for a fully considered decision.By analyzing Article 55 of the Judicial Interpretation of the General Provisions of Contracts of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China(Draft for Comments)and reviewing the previous juridical practices,we present our conclusions regarding the conditions and factors that should be considered when restricting the right of rescission in cases of obviously minor breaches with a view to unifying the judicial judgment criteria by differentiating the type of breaches.