Study On Punitive Damages

Punitive damages are a significant type of damages in the states of Anglo-American law system with a history of more than 200 years. With the development of times and legal theory, the law systems of the continent and Anglo-America become more bridgeable. Punitive damages attract more interest world-widely. It is now much controversial and disputed in China.This article consists of 4 parts. It is started in the first part by defining the concept of punitive damages, tracing the origin and history of punitive damages and detailing the current state of punitive damages awards in common law system and civil law system. The second part describes the primary features and significant efficacy of punitive damages. Instead of being contradictory to traditional compensatory damages, punitive damages are a special damage with punitive, statutory and adjunctive natures. Meanwhile, by analyzing its functions of compensation, punishment and deterrence, we can find that punitive damages serve well in patching the defects of compensatory damages. The author also compares punitive damages with other forms of civil damages, concluding that punitive damages share same purposes with traditional civil damages. Part three of this article analyzes the significance of establishing punitive damages system in China. Basing on Rolse's Justice Principle and Discrepancy Rule, the article illustrates the justifications of punitive damages in both social resource distribution and jurisprudence. It examines the defects and deficiency in China's current forms of covering civil liabilities, strongly recommending that punitive damages system should be well established to realize substantial fairness and justice. The author considers that punitive damages have special advantages and merits in realizing social fairness, covering civil damages more extensively and adapting to the trend of modern civil law. Most important of all, punitive damages will be great helpful for the administration of market and the shaping of a faithful society in China. To conclude, the author proposes in the last part of the article to extend the application scopes of punitive damages in China more extensively and to regulate the imposing principles and elements strictly in order to restrain the contingent negativity.