| Since the amendment of China’s Securities Law in 2019,the liability of audit institutions in disputes over false statements has been stipulated,requiring audit institutions to bear joint liability for investors’ losses due to false statements according to the principle of presumption of fault.The revised Provisions on Hearing Cases of Tort Damages for False Statements in the Securities Market(hereinafter referred to as the "Interpretation of False Statements")shall come into force on January 22,2022.The new Interpretation of False Statements also does not respond to how to properly allocate responsibility between the inspection institutions after the issuer and the listed company assume responsibility.As the gatekeeper in the field of securities trading,inspection and verification institutions play the role of supervision and verification in securities trading activities.If the accountability of audit institutions is not properly pursued,it will affect the effective allocation of capital and the level of corporate governance at least,and even affect economic development.Therefore,it is necessary to properly allocate civil liabilities for false statements of audit institutions.This paper introduces the topic from the hot discussion of Wuyang bond case and analyzes the distribution of civil liability for false statements of inspection institutions.This paper is divided into three parts,mainly including the following:The first part is the question.First of all,through the case of Wuyang Bonds and the heated debate triggered by the judgment result,the topic of this paper is introduced,that is,to study the distribution of civil liability in the false statement cases of inspection institutions.Then,through sorting out the similar judgments screened out,the current dilemma of civil liability distribution for false statements of inspection institutions is concluded: 1.Unclear division of responsibility of audit institutions;2.The causality identification of civil liability undertaken by inspection institutions is more general;3.Lack of specific guidelines for the allocation of civil liability shares by audit institutions.The second part is a jurisprudence analysis of the related legal issues summarized in the first part.Firstly,it defines audit institutions from the perspective of responsibilities and obligations.This paper believes that under the background of registration system,accounting firms and law firms are required to assume more supervision responsibilities in the securities market.Secondly,it demonstrates the factors that affect the distribution of civil liability of audit institutions.Fault and cause force are the key factors affecting the distribution of civil liability of audit institutions,the key points of fault and cause force in the judgment of clear audit institutions liability division mechanism,but through the comparison of the United States and the relevant provisions of the division of civil liability in our country,found that there are defects in the division of civil liability for false statements of audit institutions is not clear,the accountability standard is not clear.Thirdly,based on the premise that the behavior of the auditing institution in the false statement case is characterized as joint infringement,it discusses the way of the auditing institution’s responsibility and the way of liability share distribution.It is reasonable and improper to assume the civil liability of false statement by inspection institutions by means of "joint and several liability",and explore the feasibility of applying other liability bearing methods.The third part puts forward some suggestions on how to determine and configure the civil liability of the audit institutions,aiming at the deficiencies and defects of the current civil liability system of the audit institutions.First of all,it is necessary to clarify the scope of responsibility and the standards of diligence and responsibility of the audit institution and refine the criteria for judging fault and cause force.Clarify the proportion of compensation to be shared by each inspection institution in the case of false statement.The method of assuming liability based on "joint and several liability" in false statement cases is optimized,and on this basis,the allocation rules of civil liability of audit institutions in false statement are constructed.Specifically,one is to clarify the boundary of the exercise of the judge’s discretion and the proportional relationship in responsibility sharing.The other is about the duty allocation rules of the audit institution,proposing that the court needs to consider the size of the fault and cause of each audit institution to allocate the responsibility of each audit institution,and also consider various factors to limit the final amount to bear. |
