Study On Legislation Of Punitive Damages

Punitive damages refer to the sum of damage decided by the court which suppresses the sum of actual damages. Punitive damage system was originated from the legal precedents in the common law countries, such as Great Britain and USA. The applicability of this system has undergone changes during its developmental process. The punitive damage system is increasingly criticized and disputed in the world. The punitive damage system has been regulated in Law on the protection of consumers' rights of China. Currently, some scholars advocate that this common law system can be used for reference and can be brought into China's legislation of Civil Code.This paper first starts from the conception of punitive damages, then proves the necessity and feasibility of bringing punitive damages into Civil Code from the following respects: the legislation and judicial practice of punitive damage in all kinds of countries; the theoretical bases of punitive damages; the functions of punitive damages and the problems needed to be coordinated and solved. The legislation proposal was put forward on the basis of the comments of the articles related to the punitive damages from the two prepositional drafts of Civil Code in this paper.This paper is divided into four parts. The first part deals with the definition of punitive damages on the basis of the characteristics of punitive damages, the relationships between punitive damages and their related conceptions and the qualities of punitive damages . The second part comments on the punitive damages based on the fact of the law-making and judicial practice of punitive damages in the common law countries , the civil law countries , main land of China and Taiwan. Punitive damage is adopted by some countries, even though it is constantly criticized and disputed at the same time. The third part proves the vindication of...