US Study Punitive Damages System

Punitive damages, also called "vindictive damages"or "exemplary damages"in theory.It refers to the amount of compensation the court made is more than actual damage.Its purpose is to compensate the plaintiff suffered from the illegal action of the damage.The application of punitive damages in China is a increasingly widespread trend in food safety, consumer rights protection and tort liability,but there are no specific provisions in decision criteria, specific procedures and indemnity.This article plans to introduce punitive damages from U.S experience, analyzed the applicable conditions and advantages of punitive compensation, and then make bold suggestions on the basis of Chinese law.This text is divided into four chapters:The first chapter is a introduction, which introduces the concept of punitive damages and the origin of civil punishment, analyses the economics advantage of punitive damages, and highlights the establishment of the foundation of punitive damages.The second chapter discusses the application of punitive damages.It is discussed through a very famous US case.The case’s background, application, the result are introduced in this chapter.Through the case, we can find the punitive compensation system is the development of the zigzag forward, although in practice, high compensation is limited a lot, but the decisions of punitive damages still have demonstrated effect, and promote the enterprise’s credit management.Application of punitive damages must consider the defendant’s property status, punitive compensation amount and the actual damage.The principle of due process set obstacles in the application of punitive damages, and how to balance the procedural justice and essence of justice is the limited problem of the federal court and state court power.The application of the punitive compensation system and the American jury system, private litigation system, risk agency are closely related.The third chapter points out the punitive compensation system in contract law, securities law, environmental law, intellectual property law.In the contract law, because subjective vicious are similar, distinguish between contract and tort has no actual need, the jury can also make punitive damages in practice.In the securities arbitration, there are different perspectives in favor of and against punitive damages, it is suggested that the application of punitive damages must set "the arbitration guide ", and are subject to judicial review. In the environmental protection law, punitive damages’s practice is in difficulty, and may encounter "degree" problem. In the field of intellectual property protection, judgment standard of intentional tort exist from "reasonable notice" to "objective rash behavior", and at the same time,copyright and patent protection have different standards.The fourth chapter points out the difficulty in the application process of punitive damages in China,and makes a contrast between the different standard of "sufficient product", proposed for punitive damages in China.Last but not least,according to the insufficient laws in punitive damages,the writer makes suggestions on the contract,security trade,environmental infringement and intellectual property laws and rules.