Identification Of Gross Negligence In Civil Law

The criminal law had clearly defined two types of fault, that is, intent and negligence. However, there is no strict distinction in civil law. Theoretically, negligence has been specified into three categories:gross negligence, ordinary negligence and slight negligence. Gross negligence means the doer didn’t have the least duty of care, so that lead the damages occur; general neglience means the behavior person didn’t have the general care which ordinary people should have; And slight negligence refers to the behavior person who has a good manager’s duty of care, but still cannot avoid damage occur. Thorough careful analysis, we can know that this kind of classification is very random and has no clear significance of distinction. Some scholars even define gross negligence as a third type of fault, together with intent and negligence. To a great extent, gross negligence determines whether the behavior person needs to shoulder the responsibility or not, and the means to should. Sometimes, under the special regulations of law, the behavior person only needs to be responsible for gross negligence and intent, for example, grants, free storage as well as unpaid principal, etc. Gross negligence is negligence of severe degree, and in many cases, it has different legal effects compared to intent. Therefore, there is a great theoretical as well as practical significance to discuss and analysis gross negligence.With the distinction of different degree of fault and historical evolution of gross negligence as the starting point, this paper expounds the essence and characteristics of gross negligence and the necessity to distinguish gross negligence from intent and general neglience, and then expounds the judgment standard of gross negligence. On this basis, this paper lastly clarifies the legal consequences of gross negligence. The first chapter is "The Importance to Distinguish Different Degree of Fault and Historical Evolution of Gross Negligence ". This chapter expounds different types of negligence, the historical origin of gross negligence, and introduces Chinese and foreign legal scholar’s understanding and application of gross negligence.The second chapter is "The Connotation of Gross Negligence". This chapter briefly introduces the essence and characteristics of gross negligence and then analyzes the differences and relations between gross negligence and intent, gross negligence and general negligence.The third chapter is "The Judgment Standard of Gross Negligence". This chapter combines the subjective and objective standard to put forward a feasible scheme to determining gross negligence.The last chapter is "The Legal Consequences of Gross Negligence". This chapter analysis the legal consequences that gross negligence would bring about, and then discusses the famous rule "Gross Negligence Equated with Intention to Harm"...