Study Of Pure Economic Loss, Legal Liability Issues

Pure economic loss is a term mentioned by western scholars recently. It refers to the loss in gray area between tort law and contract law, which means that such loss is not originated from the breach of contract as well as the damage to the body or property. The scholars abstract this loss type in order to exclude the legal liability it generates, however, the court's attitude toward this issue differs from country to country due to different legal system.Pure economic loss is very new to Chinese law. It is mentioned in neither legislation nor judicial judgment. According to the current law and some related cases, it is not so clear that how the pure economic loss is remedied in China. The aim of this article is to define the pure economic loss, compare the practices of some representative countries, and provide the advice to our civil law construction.The origin, definition and categories of the pure economic loss will be introduced in the first part of this article. In the second part, the article will discuss the policy consideration of pure economic loss. In the third part, the tort or contractual liability of the loss will be compared among Germany, France, England and America. The article will find their common practices, while the act of abstracting the loss will be demonstrated to be wrong afterwards. In the last part, the article will provide the advice to our country on the basis of the current law and the drafts some scholars proposed.