Study On Punitive Damages System

Punitive damages system is a complex legal system, which has practical significance. It is generally exists in ancient laws. You can find "punitive damages" in every county in the world's earliest law system. Punitive damages system was admitted in our ancient laws for a long time. In modem laws, punitive damages system in Anglo-American countries got continuous development. However, it was kept vanishing in civil law countries. At present, the vigorous development of punitive damages system in Anglo-American law system counties had an effect on civil law countries. Civil law countries began to admit and accept punitive damages system. Nowadays, the punitive damages system is a new legal system in China. There are many arguments and criticism ever since it comes into being. In current laws of China, there are five clauses which related to punitive damages. Firstly, the Article 49 of "Consumer Protection Law" in1993; secondly, Article 113 the 2nd of "Contract Law"; and the third is the Article 8,9,14 the 2nd of "the Explanation of Some Issues on the Trial of Commodity House Purchasing and Selling Contract Disputes", which was issued by the Supreme People's Court in 2003; the fourth is the Article 96 the 2nd of"Food Safety Law" in 2009; the last one is the Article 47 of "Tort Liability Law" in 2009. This is a mark of that punitive damages system has had a certain foundation in china, But on the whole, the status of punitive damages system in our current legislation isn't very optimistic, it is only in the primary research phase, and it's only a prototype. There are still many defects in the application scope, the applicable condition, etc. There are also many arguments about the amount of calculation. This paper was divided into five chapters to discuss the content about punitive damages system.The first chapter is the summary of the punitive damages system. This part mainly introduces the meaning of the punitive damages, as well as its intention and function. In some countries such as England, America and French, people have some different understandings about the meaning of the punitive damages. This paper is going to distinguish them and raise the writer's opinion. The intention of the punitive damages system is mainly to punish and refrain from the illegal behavior. In this paper, the function of the punitive damages system is divided into three parts:the function to the defendant, the function to the victim, and the function to other people.The second chapter is the history review of the punitive damages system. This part is going to analyze the flexural development of the punitive damages system from the ancient time to the modern time. The punitive damages system was a ubiquitous legal system in ancient time. But now in countries of Anglo-American Law System, it not only has an extended, but also has some further development and consummation. At present, Civil law countries begin to recognize it gradually.The third chapter is about the comparison between the punitive damages system and some related systems. This paper mainly introduces the resemblances and differences among the punitive damages, compensatory damages, penal sum and fine.The fourth chapter mainly analyses its current legislation and defects in our country. The writer focused on "punitive damages" in the Article 96 the 2nd of the Food Safety Law and the Article 47 of the Law of Tort Liability which were passed in 2009.The fifth chapter is about the structure of the punitive damages system in our country. Then it does some analysis about the application scope, the application condition, the amount of calculation and so on.