| Punitive Damages are damages which the court decides the defendant to pay to the victim in addition to actual damages. It is used for punishing the defendant and deterring the similar action. The system of Punitive Damages had been set up for 200 years in Common law. But in our country, there are many disputes about this question, especially after 'the code No.49 of law of the People's Republic of China on the protection of Consumers Rights and Interests' has been announced. Some people argue that our country should set up this system, but other ones oppose this viewpoint firmly. So this thesis had done a comparative research on the main West Countries'system of Punitive Damages. And the author hopes it will offer some help to understand Punitive Damages.This thesis was divided into five chapters.The first chapter started on the concept of Punitive Damages, including the broad sense and the narrow sense. After Comparing, the author chose the latter view as the basis of this thesis. In another words, the author thought that Punitive Damages only referred to damages in addition to actual damages. The characters of Punitive Damages were the next contents in this chapter. The author had mainly carried on the analysis in four aspects, such as the subjective aspects of action, the applicatory scope and so on. At the end of this chapter, the author ticked off three different domestic views about Punitive Damages.The second chapter compared Punitive Damages with Compensatory Damages. Compensatory Damages has played very important role on the civil legal duty. But with the development of the society, the questions of Compensatory Damages begin to appear. For example, the rationale of Compensatory Damages begins to be questioned. And the victim often can't get enough compensation because of various kinds of factors. Compared with Compensatory Damages, the advantages of Punitive Damages were clear. The rationale of Punitive Damages is more rational than the rationale of Compensatory Damages. The value orientation of Punitive Damages is also more rational than Compensatory Damages', because it is partial to the victim but not to the defendant. Punitive Damages have three functions including deterrence, punishment and compensation. But Compensatory Damages only has the function of compensation. Since Punitive Damages have so many advantages, our country should introduce it. But the author thought that we should not split Punitive Damages and Compensatory Damages, because there was a close connection between them. As a result, we should make them complementary.The third chapter introduced the main West Countries' system of Punitive Damages, and had done a Comparative research on them. In the western common law, the systems of Punitive damages in U.S.A., Britain, Canada and Australia are typical, so this article put the focus on these countries' system. At first, the author introduced each country's different applicatory scope and terms of the system .And the factors which influence the compensation number were recommended one by one. On the basis of these introduce, his article analyzed the differences and common grounds among these countries' system. Maybe, we should learn something from the common grounds among these countries' system, in order to make our legal system better. And then, this article had analyzed the developmental trend of the system of Punitive Damages in common law. With the enlargement of Punitive Damages'application, continent law began to pay close attention to this system, and they have applied Punitive Damages within the specific limits. The influence of Punitive Damages is expanding.The fourth chapter analyzed the application and defects of Punitive Damages in our country's current legislation . The first analytic target is the code No.49 of law of the People's Republic of China on the protection of Consumers Rights and Interests. The other one is the legal explanation for dealing contract dispute of commodity apartment. There are many defects in these two fields.
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