On The Professional Liability Of Architect

At present the responsibility of the architects of China's laws and regulations are not experts in sound, theoretical research is lagging behind, coupled with the real participation of the main building in the complex and complicated, while the architect is often hidden in many of the main after another, resulting in the judicial practice of the architects Professional Liability difficult to trace. Therefore, the strengthening of the architects responsible for theoretical research and legislative studies, establishing and improving the responsibility system architect experts, are of great theoretical significance and practical significance.An "architect" is:"one who possesses, with due regard to aesthetic as well as practical considerations, adequate skill and knowledge to enable him (i) to originate, (ii) to design and plan, (iii) to arrange for and supervise the erection of such buildings or other works calling for skill in design and planning as he might, in the course of his business, reasonably be asked to carry out or in respect of which he offers his services as a specialist." When an architect breaches the legal obligations or contractual obligations in the course of performing their duties, if it causes damage, no matter intentional or negligence, he should bear the main responsibility for civil liability. This liability is professional liability of the architect. The architect's responsibilities to the client, cannot simply be classified as the tort liability or contractual liability, or is it the responsibility of competing, but to be analyzed according to specific circumstances, in some cases it is contractual responsibility, in some cases it is tort responsibility, and in the majority of cases it is competing responsibilities. The responsibility of the architect to the third part, although the terms of the contract by implied terms of the contract or the theory of altruism may be a legal fiction architect an existing contractual relationship with a third person, thus we can use the contract duty to solve the problem, but I believe that the law determine the architects of the third person tort liability in line with the actual situation in nature.Architects Professional Liability is rooted in the obligation of experts. The obligation of architects can be divided into contractual obligations and statutory obligations, contractual obligation is the prerequisite and basis of contractual liability of the architect, the legal obligation of the architect which mainly is professional obligation is the basis for the architect liable for infringement. Architects professional obligations are rooted from the trust of the people to the architect, in essence, is an expert on the social obligations, that is, the architect is not only the client's employment who should be loyal to clients, but also he is an expert in the design field who should undertake corresponding social obligations, and do a good job for the entire human environment as a "gatekeeper" role. Statutory obligation plays an important role for the protection of the interests of a relative party freeing from damage, particularly when the parties have not stipulated the obligations of the architects. But we cannot ignore the contractual obligation of the architect.For the legislative policy considerations, our professional liability for architects should adopt the principle of fault liability attributable to the specific recoverable fault of presumption. The theory of objective fault, under the guidance of practice for architects' negligence criterion, it should be an architect as an expert in the construction activities, to engage in professional activities in the field of ordinary people act as a standard to be met. In particular we need to properly judge the novice, veteran, innovators duty of care standards. The establishment of the causal relationship between civil law and should adopt a "substantial causal relationship to say" with the Anglo-American legal system's "rule of foreseeability," a combination model.The mechanism of the architect taking only inner responsibility do good to be compensated for the benefit of victims in time to a certain extent, but it is Contrary to relevant Jurisprudence, and it is not conducive to the development of architectural design industry, so our country should establish architect liability for negligence of himself, and should allow architect practice independently. The main mode of Architects Professional Liability is damages. Damages include physical damage and economic losses. Of course, the law should use some appropriate manner to limit the scope of responsibility of architect so as to prevent architects from undertaking too much responsibility.As the architect practicing risky, so China should learn from Western countries and promote the professional insurance. We can promote the architect professional insurance as a Compulsory insurance. At the same time we should also establish compensation fund for the architect. Thus not only the architects can release their risks through social means, but also the victims can receive compensation in time.