A Study On Punitive Damages Of Product Liability

Punitive damages system can originate from Anglo-American law system. China belongs to the continental law system; we traditionally believe that the purpose of compensation for damages lies in the victim's damage compensation in the field of civil compensation. However, with the development of Times, the limitation of compensatory damages system has been increasingly occurs. In recent years, the amount of product liability cases grows rapidly in our country. Compensatory damages cannot punish illegal person, nor form the deterrence to the potentially illegal person. Therefore, establish punitive damages system in the field of product liability become an urgent task by learning the experience of foreign countries.In this article, punitive damages system will be discussed mainly from three parts.The first part mainly introduces some problems of punitive damages system, including the concepts,historical evolutions and functions of punitive damages system. The functions of it cover punishment function, deterrence function, compensation damage function and encourage market transaction function.The application of punitive damages system in the field of American products liability will be introduced in the second part. It contains the produce and disputes of punitive damages; the main type of behavior and essential elements for punitive damages; the reform measures to high compensation amount and duplicate penalty.In the third part of this article, we will discuss the application of punitive damages system in China, and put forward some suggestions about the establishment of punitive damages system in the field of China's product liability. The author thinks these factors should be considered:the coordination between spiritual damage compensation and compensatory damages, the applicable rules of design and the calculation of punitive damages.