중국 국제사법상 소비자계약의 준거법에 관한 연구 - 섭외민사관계법률적용법 제42조를 중심으로 -

A special provision on the governing law of consumer contract act to protect consumers who are regarded as the weaker party in a contract in terms of conflict of law. To name a few, the significant imbalance of bargaining power between business operators and consumers and the vulnerability of consumers are the reasons why special protection is needed in a consumer contract. When consumer transactions contain international elements, consumers can be exposed to legal risks that may be governed by the law which cannot offer enough protection against them. China has a huge consumer market, and South Korea is a big country with cross-border shopping. When disputes arise over international consumer contracts between the party of the two countries, South Korean consumers can be sued, or they can file a lawsuit against the other party in a Chinese court. In this case, the governing law of the contract should be decided through the Chinese private international law act, namely “Act on the Application of Laws over Foreign-related Civil Relationships” (hereinafter, “the Act”). Article 42 of the Act introduces a special provision on the governing law of consumer contract. Accordingly, this article is intended to provide instruction on the Chinese method to protect consumers in the perspective of private international law based on Article 42 of the Act. This paper is discussed as follows. Section II explores the interpretation of the article based on the text. Section III introduces and evaluates some cases in which the article is applied in Chinese courts. Section IV presents and analyzes some special issues that can arise during the process of interpretation and application of the article. Section V summarizes the overall discussion above and suggests topics that should be discussed deeper in future research.