A Research On The Joint And Several Liability In American Tort Law And Its Enlightenment To Our Country

The joint and several liability in tort law refers to two or more debtors have the samedebt and the same damage responsibility. It was earliest recorded in the legal documents inthe ancient Roman Times. The joint and several liability of Common Law originated in theUnited Kingdom, and the United States inherited it. In the United States, the joint andseveral liability has experienced from the NO Contribution Rule to the Contribution Rule,and from only to intentional tort to negligence tort. In the late1970’s, many states abolishedthe joint and several liability.The tort reform in the United States is the external cause of the decline of the joint andseveral liability. In the reform, the focus was whether to abolish the joint and several liabilityor not. The opposition held the view that the adoption of the pure joint and several liabilitywas unfair to the Mr. Deep Pocket. But the preserved didn’t agree with them. They held theview that the negligence between the plaintiff and the defendant was totally different. Theplaintiff’s negligence is just that they failed to fulfill their reasonable duty to protectthemselves, but this kind of negligence is not harm to others. The debate had lasted for tenyears between the two factions, as the result, the joint and several liability was restricted toapply.There are many defects of applying the joint and several liability in judicial practice inour country. Such as the phenomenon of abuse of joint and several liability in the litigationpractice. Drawing on the results of tort law reform in the United States can improve the jointand several liability in our country.