食品安全领域惩罚性赔偿制度分析与完善——以法经济学为视角

Analysis and Perfection of Punitive Damages System in the Field of Food Safety:from the Perspective of Lawand Economics

惩罚性赔偿制度是一项着眼于提高违法者违法成本,从而遏制不法行为的制度。根据这一制度的要求,可以判处违法者承担超过实际损害数额,从而威慑违法者。从法经济学角度来说,惩罚性赔偿制度增加了违法成本,从而震慑潜在的不法行为人远离违法行为,具体到食品安全领域,虽然新《食品安全法》重新修订了赔偿基数和赔偿数额,但离真正意义上的惩罚性赔偿制度还有距离,其设计的食品安全领域中的违法成本仍然小于违法所得,无法有效遏制不法行为人,且消费者维权所得和维权成本仍然存在落差,导致食品安全问题无法根本解决。所以,有必要在法经济学的视角下引入浮动限额制度、相关因素考量、增加边际成本的配套制度,从而构建一个更经济合理和充分发挥功能的惩罚性赔偿制度。

The system of punitive damages is a system which aims to improve the illegal costs of the offenders andthus deter the wrongful act. According to the requirements of this system,the offenders can be sentenced to exceed theactual amount of damage and thus deter the offenders. From the perspective of law and economics,the punitivecompensation system increases the cost of the law,thereby deterring potential wrongful acts from breaking the law,specifically to the food safety field. Although the new food safety lawrevised the compensation base and the amount ofcompensation,it is far fromthe real punitive compensation system. The illegal cost in the field of food safety design is lessthan the illegal income,and it cannot effectively contain the wrongful person. And the cost of the consumer’ s rights andthe cost of safeguarding rights still exist,which leads to the problem of food safety. Therefore, it is necessary to introducethe system of floating limit under the perspective of law and economics,consider the relevant factors and increase thesupporting systemofmarginal cost, so as to build amore economical and reasonable punitive compensation system.