Strictly speaking, it is called "legal act", and our civil law is called civil legal act. Legal acts of citizens or legal persons (civil subjects) to establish, change or terminate civil rights and obligations.

Second, the characteristics of civil legal acts

1, which should be an act implemented by the civil subject for the purpose of producing civil legal consequences;

2. It should be an act with the expression of will as the constitutive element;

3. It should be legal.

Three. Forms of civil legal acts

In China, the forms that can be adopted in civil legislation to confirm civil juristic acts include: express form and implied form.

1, express bill

The so-called express form refers to the actor expressing his inner meaning to the outside world in a positive, direct and clear way, including the oral form of expressing his inner meaning in words; Written form and other forms of expressing inner feelings in words, such as audio-visual materials and special written forms that must be performed by specific authorities, such as notarization, approval and registration.

(1) Oral form

Oral form is a civil legal act established by the actor to express his inner meaning through words, such as face-to-face conversation and telephone contact between the parties. Oral form is a form widely used by the public in civil legal acts in social life. Its advantages are quickness and rapidity. However, due to the lack of objective records, it is difficult to obtain evidence in the event of a dispute. Therefore, the oral form is mostly used for small transactions with instant settlement, while the oral form is not suitable for civil legal acts with large amount and non-instant settlement.

(2) Written form

Written form is a civil legal act established by the actor expressing his inner meaning with written symbols. The advantage of written form is that it objectively records the content of civil legal acts carried out by the actor on a certain carrier through written symbols, and becomes the basis for determining the rights and obligations of the parties, which is conducive to preventing objections in civil activities and handling civil disputes. According to Article 1 1 of China's Contract Law, written forms of civil juristic acts include contracts, letters and various data messages-telegrams, telexes, faxes, electronic data exchanges and emails, which can tangibly express the contents of civil juristic acts.

(3) Other forms

(1) Audio-visual materials refer to the forms in which actors express the contents of civil legal acts through the sounds and images reflected by audio and video recordings and materials stored by computers.

(2) Notarization is a way for notary organs to examine and prove the authenticity and legality of civil legal acts. The function of notarization is only to prove the truth and legality of civil legal acts. In the event of a dispute, the notarized civil juristic act has the strongest evidential effect, and the parties may not deny the notarized effect with other forms of evidence. What needs to be emphasized is that the fact that our country's legal acts are not notarized does not affect their legal effect.

3. Examination and approval refers to a civil legal act that can only be established after being examined and approved by the relevant competent authorities according to law.

(4) the form of registration refers to the form that can only take effect after it is registered with the relevant competent authorities according to law. In China, the principle of charitable trust based on real estate. Civil legal acts related to real estate (such as houses, land, transportation, etc.). ) are generally registered according to law. This is the basic form of this civil legal act.

2. Implicit form

Implied form refers to a kind of civil legal act which is established by inferring the expression of the actor's will through certain facts without relying on explicit forms such as language or words. Although the actor did not express his intention, according to the law, it can be recognized that some objective factual state of the actor is to express his consent to civil activities.

The implied form of civil juristic act is strictly restricted by law. Only when the law clearly stipulates that the actor can express his will implicitly, for example, Article 28 of China's Inheritance Law stipulates: "After the inheritance begins, the successor shall give up the inheritance before the disposal of the estate. If there is no indication, it is regarded as accepting inheritance. The legatee shall, within two months after knowing the legacy, make an indication of accepting or giving up the legacy. If it is not handled at maturity, it will be regarded as abandoning the inheritance. "