Study On The Civil Punitive Compensation System

The punitive compensation system, originally as a compensation system for damages of the Anglo-American family of law, has been attached importance by some scholars of the countries of the continental law system in recent years, with relevant regulations occurring in legislation. This paper makes a preliminary discussion of the features, functions, values, applicable conditions and range, and the problems of the punitive compensation system of China existing in application as well as relevant legislative suggestions. The whole paper is divided into four chapters. In Chapter 1, focusing on the scientific meanings and features, the paper mainly studies the basic topics of the punitive compensation system, tracing the origin of the punitive compensation, gradually dealing with the process of the punitive compensation system established in the Anglo-American family of law and its relevant features and giving a brief introduction of the current situation of the application of the punitive compensation system in the continental law system. In this chapter, the punitive compensation system is first defined as that the court judges the defendant paying the additional compensation to the prosecutor by law, aiming at punishment, out of the compensatory range, according to the defendant's fraudulent acts and subjective malignity of infringement. And then, by comparing the punitive compensation system to civil sanction measures, fines and compensation for spiritual damages, the author further deals with the uniqueness and irreplaceability of the punitive compensation system. In the meantime, it is pointed out that the punitive compensation system is the citizens'self-relief means, belonging to the category of private rights, which aims at relieving the prosecutor's private rights and making his or her losses compensated. Only the prosecutor applying to the court can institute the procedure, and if the prosecutor does not lodge a suit, the court will not accept the case. Compared to other systems, the punitive compensation system is more able to encourage the citizens to fight against the illegal civil actions and guide the citizens to protect their own rights and interests by lawsuit, thus attaining the aim of punishment and deterrence. Compared to the compensatory system, the features of the punitive compensation system are analyzed, abstracted as punitive, legal and additional. On the whole, Chapter 1, which the theoretic base of the paper, provides the legal theoretic grounds for the following three chapters. In Chapter 2, the author focuses on the analysis of the rationality of the punitive compensation system, analyzing the three functions of the punitive compensation system (function of punishment, function of deterrence and function of compensation) and the internal value basis of the three aspects of justness and fairness, safety and efficiency, personal rights and social development entailed in the system and the restrictions of the system. Viewed from the range of compensation, the punitive compensation system is not restricted by the actual damages, with all the amounts of compensation higher and even much higher than those of the compensation for damages. The functions of the system lie in not only making up the damages by the victims but also punishing and deterring the severe offences, and restricting the inflictor's desire to break the law by large amounts of compensation. Although there is its intrinsic rationality for the existence of the punitive compensation system, it should not be denied that the system itself can cause the increase of lawsuits, which is not beneficial to saving the social resources and results in the deforming of allocation of legal resources. In Chapter 3, the components and applicable range of the punitive compensation system are mainly studied. Although the3 scholars of our country have made much affirmative discussion of the punitive compensation system, the components and the concrete applicable range of the system in application should be carefully taken into account because such points of views are emphasized in theory such as that the harm is not investment, the passive harm is not the exchange of commodities and the equal subjects have no right of punishment. The vicious and gross negligence should, first of all, become the subject component of the punitive compensation, and then the law must have clear regulations and the parties concerned claim that rights are also the requisite of application themselves. The three conditions disclose the components of the punitive compensation in order to make the system more operable. There are great differences in theory about whether the punitive compensation system is applicable in the contractual liabilities. On the basis of analyzing the rationality of application of the punitive compensation system in the contractual liabilities, the author deals with its applicable requisite and range, pointing out that the system should be applicable in the contractual liabilities, but should be strictly restricted, and must taking the existence of effective contracts as the requisite. And then, the author analyzes the property of the product liabilities, dealing with the positive significance of introducing the punitive compensation system to the product liabilities. In the tort liabilities, the author thinks that the application of the punitive compensation system can be further enlarged. In Chapter 4, the author sorts out the problem which should be paid attention in the application of the punitive compensation system of our country and presents his own viewpoints, showing the integration of theory and practice. At the beginning of this chapter, the current situation of the punitive compensation system of our country in legislation, with the fact that the system has not widely affirmed in the laws of our country pointed out. Following this, the author analyzes the application of the punitive compensation system in the current judiciary practice, focusing on...