The Significance of Administrative License in Civil Law

Abstract Administrative license is closely related to validity judgments on civil juristic acts. In terms of civil law, an administrative organ, under administrative license, allows citizens, legal persons or other organizations to engage in specific activities. Some of these activities fall under approved factual acts; some are approved civil juristic acts; and some depend on the particular situation, sometimes belonging to factual acts, sometimes to civil juristic acts. Correspondingly, some provisions for administrative license found in law or administrative regulations are mandatory provisions falling under simple norms; some are mandatory provisions falling under complex norms; and some depend on the particular situation, sometimes belonging to the former and sometimes to the latter. Where a party intends to rule out the application of such mandatory provisions by virtue of agreement on the intent of the civil juristic act, Article 153 (2) of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China shall be cited to hold that the agreement is absolutely invalid. Where the civil juristic act of a party violates mandatory provisions falling under complex norms, Article 153 (1) of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China shall be invoked to judge its validity.