A Study Of The Punitive Damages In American Tort Law

Relative to the Civil Law system, the punitive damages in Common Law system is more mature in the theory research and legal practice. From the perspective of comparative law, there are differences in the punitive damages between American law and English law. And the differences also exist in the tort law, contract law, insurance law and bankruptcy law in the punitive damages in America. This paper mainly discussed the punitive damages of the American tort law, including five parts.Part one is about the historical evolvement of the punitive damages, introducing the course from ancient code time, Roman law time to recent English law and American law time, and its purpose is to help understand and analyze the modern punitive damages in American tort law.Part two is about the definition, nature and purpose of the punitive damages in American tort law, identifying its definition, reviewing the relation among public policy, discretion and the nature of punitive damages, and analyzing the its purposes of deterrent and punishment and its function in the litigation expenses and petty injury.Part three is about the types of tort to which punitive damages applies...