Tort Damages For Economic Analysis

In the past several decades, home and abroad jurists and economists come to commit themselves to the study of economic analysis of law, that is, they begin to discuss the law problems from the economic angle and take the analysis of the law problems on the basis of economic theories and approaches. In a word, the approach of economic analysis has been put into use in almost all the aspects of law.This thesis is also trying to take use of the approach of economic analysis in order to probe into the system of damages for torts. First, it has presented the origin,development, values and some basic presuppositions of the economic analysis of law, such as the scantiness of resources, the theory of ecnomic man and utility maximization,etc.Meanwhile, it points out that the analysis of cost-profit is the elementary thinking mode of the economic analysis, while the value orientation of efficiency is its core principle.The Hand Formula has established a link between the traditional constituent elements for torts and the economic models,thus to quantify the accountability.The economic causal model makes it possible for some of the torts cases which involve the causalities to be explained via function relation. In other words, it makes it possible to analyze those cases talked of above without resort to the concept of cause. In addition, the calculation of damages is one of the most challenging issues in torts law. This thesis has discussed the calculation of compensatory and punitive damages, with the conclusion that the primary function of damages for torts is to prevent the accidents or torts, from the angle of economic analysis.