Research On Zoo Management Responsibilities

With the rapid economic development in the society,most of people has experienced dramatic improvement in their living standards as well as highly diversified entertainment and activities.However,recent years has also witnessed surging of the torts cases.Therefore,the promulgation of the Tort Liability Law in 2010 sparked off a wide-ranging debate in the entire society,in which many scholars and experts wrote and published papers expressly for some of legal issues involved.One of such issues is around potential torts in zoos.Despite the pleasure and delight it could provide for the public,a zoo is a place where the public can be put in peril because of negligence of zoo's employers.According to the Article 81 of the Tort Liability Law,the legislature seems to believe zoos' administrations generally are more capable of providing safe precautions for visitors than ordinary owners of animals,while most of harm and damage to visitors happens when visitors violate rules and restrictions of zoos,thereby voluntarily assuming resulting risk.Nonetheless,many scholars disagree with such views and claim that it is not only unfeasible,but also theoretically untenable if zoos are presumably liable when visitors get hurt or damage by animals.Realizing the necessity and urgency of this issue to be scrutinized.Based on the author's own interpretation of the Article81 of the Tort Liability Law,this paper tries to analyze and clarify both the theoretical rationale and the fundamental contents of zoo's management responsibilities,elements in torts caused by animals in zoos,and what criterion of liability should be applied in such issues,in the purpose of providing constructive suggestions for legislation in this specific field of law.Besides the introduction and the summary,there are four sections in this paper:Section ?: classic examples are discussed in terms of their contentious issues,and zoo's management responsibilities are introduced and briefly analyzed.Section?: This section focuses on theoretical issues of zoo's management responsibilities.First of all,the zoo is in nature defined as a type of public institution with multiple functions like public education,scientific research,and source of entertainment.Second,this section points out that it is zoo's responsibility to take reasonable precautions and measures to ensure visitors' safety because zoos attract visitors and gain profit in virtue of their dangerous animals.Third,the management responsibilities of zoos are established as atype of affirmative duties that includes warning,regulation,and protection.The contents of such duties are also delineated in detail,which includes,but are not limited to,duties of arrangement of safety facilities,duties of periodic maintenance,duties of regulation,duties of patrolling and warning for safety,and duties of rescue,etc.Last but not least,scope of such duties is discussed and determined with respect to spatial area for which the zoo should be responsible,range of entities under the zoo's management and regulation,and scope of people to which the zoo owes such duties.Section ?: this section centers around related tort laws on zoo's failure to carry out its duties mentioned above.Analysis is conducted from the perspective of tort law,which talks mainly about what principles and guidelines we should employ in the determination of zoo's liabilities in such circumstances.Through the balancing of interests of both zoos and victims,this section analyzes that whether it is reasonable,after the harm and damage caused to visitors by animals in zoos,to hold the zoos liable presumptively.Above all,it is established that the principle of presumptive fault should be applied,as opposed to the principle of strict liability.Moreover,taking into account regulations in our tort laws and related mainstream theories in the academy,this section discusses essential elements for zoo's tort liability,which includes?)failure to discharge management obligation on the part of the zoo,?)damage suffered by the visitors,?)and causation between such damage and the zoo's failure in its carrying out of management duties.Finally,defenses available for zoos,such as victim's own fault,force majeure,and absence of zoo's fault.Section?: On the basis of above analysis of zoo's management responsibilities,and after demonstrating the inadequacy of the Article 81 of the Tort Liability Law,the author provides his suggestions: First,the specific contents of zoo's management responsibilities should be delineated in a more concrete way.Second,the scope of such responsibilities should be extended and enlarged to a proper extent.