On The Legislation Of Chinese Recalling Defective Products

The Recall system has become a mature product liability system in theUnited State, protecting consumer rights free from potential harm. Recallmeans for the products put into market and indicative reasons and may causesafety and environmental problems, the manufacturer should report suchproblems and its possible cause and improvement measures to the relevantgovernmental authorities and apply for recalling. Upon approval, themanufacturer should change or take back the products or repair it free ofcharge to remove the danger of the defective products to public safety and theenvironment.General speaking, the sufferer may get the reparations through thelawsuit; however, this way is only the reparations to this one sufferer. Oncelots of defective products put to the market, the individual lawsuit couldn'tbring about the attention of the manufacturer in order to eliminate the danger,so the government should make use of the power to recall the products. Thisis the Recall system set up in America. Besides America many countries suchas Britain Japan and Canada study and apply this measure in order to protectthe rights of consumers. There are many harmful consequences because of the defect of law inour country. On the one hand, the kinds of products are getting colorful, andat the same time the balance between predictors and consumers is destroyed.On the other hand, the law of our country is too weak. In those countries,developed in the field of consuming culture, the recall system can restrain themanufacturers. However, we have no such system in our country except"Provision on the Administration of Recall of Defective Auto Products ",which was enforced in Oct 1, 2000. As a result, the relevant governmentalauthority has no effective way to solve such problem. This provisionestablishes a good foundation for the recall system. But there are still somany weak points. For instance, the strength of punishment is not enoughand whether the punishment could warn manufacturers is still in question.Too light punishment will decrease the enthusiasm of manufacturers to reportthe defect.There are four parts in this article. The first chapter outlines the Recallsystem, defining the system and its relevant concepts, and then outlines thecondition of law. Basing on the summary of the present legal framework, Ibring out the establishment of defective products management system withRecall system at its core. It also raises some legal analysis and suggestionregarding the possible design of such system to provide some advancedresearch for the establishment of such system in future. The maincontribution of this article is:First, defining the defective products is most important to the Recallsystem. I outline the four respects to the defective products. (1)The productsshould meet the order of healthy and safe. (2)The source of the defectiveproducts is from the procedure of manufaction. (3)The defective productsshould be systematical. (4)We should concern the different industry standard. Second, according to some scholars'opinion, the principles of bearingliability to manufacturers and sellers are rather different. The manufacturersadopt strict liability, but sellers adopt fault liability. In the author's view, faultliability is not the principle for consumers. Both manufactures and sellers cannot refuse to bear their liabilities just due to claiming no fault. In addition, asto manufacturers and sellers, only the seller without any fault can claimcompensation to the manufacturers after bearing the liability to the victims.But manufactures have no such right. Therefore, generally speaking, ourcountry only adopts the strict liability. Consumers can accuse of themanufacturer or the seller alone, or sue both of them together. As soon asconsumers prove the existence of the defect, the damage and the causation,manufacturers and sellers can not exempt from their liabilities.Third, in the author's opinion, strictly speaking, "Provision on theAdministration of Recall of Defective Auto Products"is only a regulation,not a law at all. Therefore, our country should enact "People's Republic of...