Issues On Recourse Of Compulsory Traffic Accident Liability Insurance For Motor Vehicles

China is one of the countries that have the most victims of traffic accidents. Theimplementation of the Regulation on Compulsory Traffic Accident Liability Insurancefor Motor Vehicles(hereinafter referred to as the Regulation) plays a positive role inresolving disputes of accidents in time, protecting legitimate rights and interests ofvictims, improving road traffic safety and maintaining social harmony and stability.The Regulation not only provides basic protection for victims, but also reducesfinancial burden on the insurant. It protects the interests of both sides. However, thereare also defects of the Regulation in protecting the interests of victims. In particular,the provisions on the recourse right of the insurer is not conducive to the protection ofthe interests of victims. It also can not balance the interests between the insurer andthe insurant.The provisions on recourse right of the insurer are ambiguous. The Insurers oftenabides by Article22of the Regulation, of which stipulates that the insurance companycan only advance the victim’s rescue expenses and refuse to compensate for otherlosses as long as the existence of four kinds of statutory malicious accident behaviors.Under this circumstance, if the perpetrator is insolvent, the legitimate interests of thevictims will not be guaranteed, which not only violates the principle of “no liability,no payment”, but also deviates from the legislative intention of the Regulation. In judicial practice, because of the different understanding of Article22of theRegulation, it often happens the condition of “same cases with different judgments”.It is not conducive to the uniform application of law and effective protection of thelegitimate rights and interests of victims, but also has a serious impact on thesustainable development of the industry of compulsory insurance. It is mainly becausethat the compulsory insurance system fails to fully protect the interests of victims.There are design loopholes and ambiguities in the recourse right of insurancecompany. The disputes on the recourse rights of insurance companies can not beclearly applied to specific provisions, that impact the accurate judgment of the court.There are ambiguities and it is lack of the content of the victim’s direct right of claimand the recourse right of aid fund for road traffic accidents (hereinafter referred to asthe aid fund) in the provisions of the Regulation,. Those above mentioned don’tcontribute to protect the legitimate interests of the victim. The victim’s loss can not beguaranteed.This thesis starts with typical case to give consideration of the insurer’s recourseright in the legal and practical aspects. On the basis of the successful legislationpatterns of compulsory insurance abroad, this essay absorbs domestic scholars’views of improvement of recourse right of the insurer and analyzes the legal nature ofthe recourse rights of insurance companies, the legal premise to exercise the right, therange of insurer’s payment, the legal reasons to exercise the right, the influence of theagreement between the victim and the insurant. By means of discussion above, thewriter defines the recourse right of insurer as follows for the target of protecting thepersonal interests of the victim and for the principle of balancing the interests theinsurer and the insurant.First of all, the recovery right is a kind of subrogation right. Secondly, with thelegal premise of exercising the recovery right within the limit of liability to paycompulsory insurance, the insurer bears the non-truly joint liability. Thirdly, theinsurance companies should pay the personal injury losses of the victim within thelimits of compulsory insurance. Fourthly, in case of the malicious accidents, theinsurer is entitled to exercise the right of recourse; in addition to the four illegal reasons, it also should be supplemented with other legal reasons. Fifthly, the paymenttime order of the insurer should be distinguished to determined the effectiveness ofthe agreement between the victim and the insurant, and the influence of exercising therecourse right against the insurer.In addition, in order to fully protect the interests of the victim, the writer suggestsamending the relevant provisions through judicial interpretation. The objective is toclearly stipulate the recovery right of the insurer, the recovery right of the bailoutfund,the directly-request right of the victim, which can establish a solid mechanismto protect the victims in traffic accidents, and promote the healthy development ofcompulsory insurance.