A Comparison Study Of Economic Loss Compensation System

Pure economic loss is the loss that is the result of other factors rather than the physical damage to person and property. Although it is an unfamiliar concept in China, much attention has been given to this problem in western countries since the 1960s. Along with the constant development of economy in modern society, the economic ties among people have become much stronger than before. So it is highly possible for people and enterprises to suffer pure economic loss. In some circumstances, the results are so terrible that the stability of economic system is affected. Since this kind of economic loss is hard to avoid, legislation efforts should be made to address this problem. On the other hand, pure economic loss happens so easily, it may influence so many people and bring much uncertainty. If ignored, it will inevitably impair the social fairness. If courts open the"Flood Gate", which means allowing victims to claim pure economic loss, it may cause an overflow of litigations and a waste of the social cost, and hamper the normal operation of economic life. Therefore, the attitudes of every country towards this issue are very cautious and great efforts have been made to seek a good solution to this problem without affecting economic activities.How to compensate pure economic loss is another important problem which has generated many arguments. Pure economic loss has a variety of categorizations, so we can not use one standard to solve all the types. Therefore we need to take different viewpoints for different categories with sufficient consideration of the policy factors behind each category. According to the traditional theory of civil law, pure economic loss should be regulated in contract law. In fact it is not very suitable for contract law to regulate this kind of loss and it is more appropriate to place pure economic loss under the tort law. As to this question, different country has different practice, but there have been many questions unsettled and no united theory, which makes the research of pure economic loss much more challenging.This thesis mainly discusses two questions: whether pure economic loss should be compensated and how to compensate, while more discussion is devoted to the latter. This thesis includes three parts: Part I: this part mainly discusses the concept of pure economic loss, including its definition and its role in the categorization of harms. Part 2: this part mainly discusses the theoretic development and cases of pure economic loss in England, America, Germany and France. A comparison of their legal practices is also made in part.Part 3: this part mainly discusses whether pure economic loss should be established in Chinese civil law.