Research On The Defects And Improvement Of Punitive Damages In China

Punitive damages is an important legal system in today’s world. Although many laws on punitive damages were recorded in ancient time,most scholars agree that it is only a prototype of punitive damages. The true modern sense of the punitive damages was first originated in the United Kingdom,and later,came to its full development and application in the United States. From its 200 years-long history,we can see that the scope of punitive damages has been expanded,from the initial tort field to a later field of contract,field of economic law and criminal areas,and have the tendency to extend further; from the initial internal development of common law to the civil law.In the world today,the system of punitive damages is accepted by more and more countries and is in increasingly high frequency of use. With the development of China’s economic and the increasing of international exchanges,China has also established the system in the 90’s of last century,But did not reverse the protection of consumer rights in China unfavorable situation, Setting up such a system has not been achieved, In recent years,In recent years, the terms of punitive damages is increasing,while the compensation cases have reduced year by year. The strange phenomena fully explains that there exists a lot of deficiencies in our current punitive damages system. Specifically, the defects in substantive provisions is mainly the poor choice of base data , the too exetrme multiple choice , harsh elements of main deliberate component; the main shortcomings in procedural requirements are mainly the unfair share in the burden of proof , burden of proof of the consumer is too heavy, and inadequate relief channel.the current approach seems a lot of relief but non-existent, there broke up consultation, mediation difficult to see the outcome, the complaint for too long and there is no basis for the arbitration, prosecution and other undesirable phenomena exhausted . Today with the increasing in commodity trading and consumer disputes, discussion of deficiencies of the system of punitive damages and its ways of improvement is of great theoretical and practical significance to the development of our law system.