Subject 1 — Civil Law Outline (民法概要)
Real Estate Broker Ordinary Examination · Professional Subject · Essay + MCQ
Scope and exam format
Civil Law is the legal foundation of every real estate transaction. Every sale contract, lease, mortgage, co-ownership and succession question eventually traces back to the Civil Code. The Ministry of Examination sets the paper as a mixed essay + multiple-choice format: MCQs test statutes and core concepts, while essays demand case analysis and statutory argumentation.
The PrepLicense Taiwan app focuses on the MCQ portion. Drilling statutes and concepts via repeated practice is the most efficient way to score in this subject.
Frequently tested topics
- General Principles: capacity for rights, capacity to act, formation and effect of juridical acts, defective declarations of intent (mistake, fraud, duress), grant and termination of agency, prescription
- Obligations — General and Contracts: contract formation, offer and acceptance, standard form contracts, default (impossibility, delay, incomplete performance), damages
- Obligations — Specific Contracts: sale (warranty for defects of thing and of right), lease (sale does not break lease), contract for work, mandate, agency without mandate, unjust enrichment
- Real Rights: acquisition of ownership, co-ownership (tenancy in common, joint ownership, partition), creation and enforcement of mortgage, superficies, easements over immovables, effect of registration
- Family and Succession: impact of matrimonial property regimes on disposing of real estate, partition of estate, compulsory portion and inheritance of real estate
- Agency: voluntary vs statutory agency, apparent authority, effect of acts by unauthorised agents
Study approach
Civil Code articles are numerous, so work in blocks: first lock down General Principles (agency, defective declarations of intent, prescription), then move to Obligations (contracts and sale), and finally to Real Rights (ownership, co-ownership, mortgage) — these three blocks are the densest MCQ sources. Combined with the app, drill high-frequency articles and landmark cases until you can recall the article number on sight; MCQ scores will become very stable.
Prepare essays separately using recent past papers. Practise the "list the issue → cite the statute → apply to facts → conclude" template. Essays are not in the app's scope.
Free Practice Questions
These 2 questions are identical to the app's free preview for this subject — tap an option to answer and see the explanation instantly. All 8 free questions →
A owns three cars A, B, C and sells them to B for a total of NT$500,000. A then gifts and assigns the claim against B to C. After B pays NT$500,000 in cash to C, A delivers the three cars to B and transfers ownership. How many juristic acts exist among A, B and C?
Why: Under the principle of separation between obligation and real-right acts: (1) the sales contract between A and B (one obligation act); (2) the gift contract assigning the claim from A to C (one obligation act); (3) the actual assignment of the claim (one quasi-real-right act); (4) B's transfer of cash ownership to C (one real-right act); (5) A's transfer of ownership of cars A, B and C (three separate real-right acts, one per vehicle). Total: 7 juristic acts.
On the morning of May 1, Chairman A of Company X instructs his assistant B to send a letter to C offering to buy C's factory for NT$100 million. B mails the letter on May 2 morning; it reaches C on May 4. A dies of a heart attack on the evening of May 2. C replies on May 6 accepting the offer, addressed to Company X. Is the sales contract formed?
Why: The offeror is Company X (a juristic person); A acted as its representative, so the offer is attributed to the company itself. Under Article 95(2) of the Civil Code, an expression of intent, once dispatched, is not invalidated by the subsequent death or loss of capacity of the declarant. Moreover, since the offeror is the company, A's personal death has no effect on the validity of the company's offer. C's acceptance on May 6 forms the contract.
Civil Law Outline MCQs live in the app
500+ practice questions, mock exams, progress tracking. Every question is sourced from public past papers with original explanations.
Further reading: Exam Guide · FAQ · ← Taiwan Real Estate Broker app
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