我国民法中惩罚性赔偿制度新探

The New Study on the System of Punitive Damages in Our Civil Law

惩罚性赔偿的思想不仅仅只存在于普通法系之中,它是一种世界性意义的赔偿规则(罚则)。一般民事责任与惩罚性赔偿责任的社会功能相差甚远,且适用范围不一。我国历来民事立法中就有惩罚性赔偿的法律文化传统,当前在我国民事立法中的几个惩罚性赔偿条文不仅不能为当前市场诚信程度不高的信用环境起到充分的弥补作用,而且它们本身设计上也不尽合理。我们应当秉持开放的眼光,对惩罚性赔偿制度进行结构上的重构,这也是我国法学理论和司法实践亟待解决的问题。

The thought of punitive damages is not only in the Anglo-American common law tradition, but also in the sense of the whole world as a damage regulation. There are great differences in the effect of society between the liabilities for the common civil and the punitive damages, and they belong to two different area of application. Though our country has the legal and cultural tradition of punitive damages for rather a long time, it is far from entirety and perfection. Recently, some items of punitive damages in our civil law can't make up the credit environment that has low degrees of good faith. So we have to rebuild this system in a more opening sight, and it is also a problem demanding prompt solution in law theory and judicial practice.