Punitive Damages System

The theory of punitive damages is generally thought to be originated from England, and enriches to US, as far as the world .In its more than 200 years' history, the dispute about it has never stopped. This kind of dispute has already surmounted the legal-system and affected Civil Law system which was different from that .It has had the huge impact to the Civil Law system tradition theory. Until now, although none of the Civil Law system countries establish this system in its own civil law, but some countries and areas have admitted this kind of system in the special law, which reflects this kind of system's formidable vitality. Under the situation in two big legal systems which blends gradually, we correctly understand the punitive damages system, enhance advantages and avoid disadvantages. Their is a vital significance for our country legislative work and the harmonious society's formation. The whole article is divided into four parts:The first part starts from clearing its concept. The author has made the comparative analysis between the Common Law system and our native scholar about its definition, then proposed his own viewpoint. The thesis compares punitive damages with the compensatory damages, the mental damages, fine and aggravated damages, which enables us to understand this system more clearly.The second part elaborates the punitive damages' history. We can see that through the material analysis, there has been punitive damages thought in written laws since more than 2,000 years. But punitive damages in modern laws origins from England and enriches to US. Affects reach to the world. Although many Civil Law countries only discuss it in the scientific theory , some countries and areas have adopted this kind of system in the special law.The third part has analyzed the theory related to the punitive damages. On its characteristics it has punitive,blameworthy ,legal and dependence. On the function aspect, it has penalty, deterrent, compensative and inspiring function. On the responsibility nature, there are two kind of different thoughts .One belongs to the special civil responsibility and another kind belongs to the economic law responsibility. This article approved the thought of special civil responsibility.And the author points out under the tendency of "the civil law publicized ", "the civil law socialization", we cannot approve that it belongs to the viewpoint of the economic lato need to belong to the viewpoint of the economic law liability because of one kind of systemThe fourth part analyzes how to construct the punitive damages in our country. First it obtains from the necessary, and analyzes the insufficiency of the traditional compensating compensation which produces in practice.So we can conclude the punitive damages is necessary. Generally its constitution may be divided into the subjective and the objective.According to the punitive damages' characteristics,the author analyzes the subjective with emphasis. On the applicable scope aspect, it should include personality domain, product responsibility domain, intellectual property rights domain, environment domain and criminal supplementary civil compensation domain. On the definiteness of amount,the author proposes "the lowest limitation or multiples" in order to completely protect victim's legitimate rights and interests.