Punitive Damages System

The punitive damages system has its special value and effect as being a widely adopted system in the civil prejudication of the damage and compensation in the common law system. But the civil law system countries exclude the punitive damages all the time based on their traditional theory of the civil responsibility. However, a trend of integration in the two systems comes into appearance going with the development of the global economic integration. The punitive damages system presents different trends in the two legal systems based on different legal principles: The United States is reconsidering the punitive damages and limiting its excessive application in some extent; on the other hand, some civil law system countries start to affirm the punitive damages in practice, such as Japan, China and Taiwan area. Going with the further progress of the drafting course of the Civil Code, the study on the rationality, effect and application of the punitive damages system is also going further and more specific in China.The discussion on the punitive damages system in this article can be reduced to four primary aspects. The first, is it necessary to adopt the punitive damages system? This question includes the property and functions of the punitive damages system and the problem that whether the system conflicts with the compensatory damages system .The second, when should the behavior, the applicable object of the punitive damages, assume his responsibility? The third is the factors which we should consider when applying the punitive damages. The fourth is the applicable scope of the punitive damages system in our country.This article discusses the rationality of the punitive damages theoretically, and finds out its practical value lastly focusing on the applicability and scope. The article looks back to the history of the punitive damages and analyzes its rationality in views of jurisprudence and economics. On the basis of its social functions of compensating, punishing and deterring, this article probes into its value by the way of correct justice. The social function of the punitive damages makes the actors burden more outer cost in order to deter from their misfeasance, which coinciding the theories of "cost and benefit" and "economic man". The increase of the victim's right-protecting benefit...