Punitive Damage Under Tort Law

Punitive damage is not brand new in the legislation of our country, but all ofthese legislation are in different branch of the law. Tort Law that was released in2010,article47was about the punitive damage under the product liability, but this is not thegeneral provision about the punitive damage under tort law in China. The scholars inChina had a heat discussion about the punitive damage in our country after the releaseof the rule. There are already some achievements about the topic. The major researchmethod is comparative law, and the scholars mainly looked into the law of U.S andU.K in Common law system, German in Civil law system, and Taiwan. Punitive hadbeen well recognized not only in Common law system, but also Civil law system. Ourcountry has choose punitive damage in the legislation of tort law, and it does have itsown advantage. But the rule right now in Tort Law is far from satisfaction o meet allthe needs under punitive damage. We must polish this system to make it work in thelaw enforcement department. The paper mainly focused on the punitive damage inU.S, through the comparative research and practical research, tries to rethink aboutthe status of the punitive damage system in China. I hope I can come up withsomething useful for the establishment of the system in China.The first part of this paper tries to have a thorough understanding of the punitivedamage, mainly about the concept and function of punitive damage,The second part reviews lot of first hand documents about punitive damageunder U.S law, especially about the latest development about the major controversypart about punitive damage. The paper discussed whether punitive damage inlegitimate under the constitution law, and how the court should come up with some exact figure of the punitive damage. This part laid the foundation of the furtherdiscussion in the next part.The third part looked into punitive damage in our country’s legislation. Thepunitive damage in China mainly is about a contract relationship, but gradually it willbegin to deal with tort. Focusing on article47of the Tort Law, the paper try to foundout the good, the shortage of this article, and the relation of this article of other rulesrelated to punitive damage.In the last part of this paper, the author tries to give some suggestion about thepunitive damage system in China. These thoughts is more about legislation, and isrelated to the discussion of the punitive damage system in U.S. Hopefully, it will havesome positive impact on the establishment of the punitive damage in China.