Unjustified Enrichment in China: An Uncertain Path

This chapter analyses the judicial approach adopted by Chinese courts, particularly the Supreme People’s Court, in developing a critical foundation for the law of unjustified enrichment in China. It reveals that considerable uncertainty remains with the ‘absence of basis’ approach and that flexible yet elusive notions such as ‘unfairness’, ‘unreasonableness’ and ‘impropriety’ may still play a role. While such uncertainty is perhaps inevitable as Chinese courts search for a path that best suits the local environment, greater clarity and certainty is desirable. Achieving such clarity and certainty may be greatly facilitated by learning from detailed comparisons with foreign laws, including particularly the pragmatically oriented common law rules.