We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 June 2014
Following the enactment of the 2009 Tort Liability Law the product liability system in China is largely complete. This article sketches the development of this system before outlining some of the main substantive provisions in force today and drawing comparisons between the Chinese approach and the US and European provisions. The Article will conclude that China's product liability system provides an interesting case study which enriches the study of global trends and norms in the product liability arena. In line with many other countries, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, the main influence on China has been the EC Directive rather than the US model.
1 Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Qinquan Zerenfa, Tort Liability Law of the People's Republic of China (2009) <http://www.gov.cn/flfg/2009-12/26/content_1497435.htm>. English translation taken from ‘PRC Tort Liability Law’ (June 2010) China Law & Practice.
2 The topic of product liability laws in China has not thus far been covered in detail in English language scholarship with one notable exception: Li, J, Law on Product Quality Control and Product Liability in China (William S Hein & Co 2006)Google Scholar.
3 Restatement of the Law, Third, Torts: Products Liability (American Law Institute 1998).
4 Council Directive 85/374/EEC of 25 July 1985 on the Approximation of the Laws, Regulations and Administrative Provisions of the Member States concerning Liability for Defective Products [1985] OJ L 210, 29.
5 Lin, Y, ‘The Tort System in China’ (1989) 52(3) Law and Contemporary Problems 143CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 145.
6 Zhang, M, ‘Tort Liabilities and Torts Law: The New Frontier of Chinese Legal Horizon’ (2011) 10(4) Richmond Journal of Global Law and Business 423Google Scholar.
7 Zhu, Y, ‘The Bases of Liability in Chinese Tort Liability Law: Historical and Comparative Perspectives’ in Chen, L and van Rhee, CH (eds), Towards a Chinese Civil Code: Comparative and Historical Perspectives (Martinus Nijhoff 2012) 337–8Google Scholar.
8 He, Q and Yin, X, Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Min Fa Shi (History of the Civil Law in the PRC) (Fudan University Press 1999)Google Scholar.
9 Sengayen, M, ‘Product Liability: The Perspective of New Member Countries’ in Fairgrieve, D (ed), Product Liability in Comparative Perspective (CUP 2005) 259Google Scholar.
10 Epstein, EJ, ‘Tortious Liability for Defective Products in the People's Republic of China’ (1988) 2 Journal of Chinese Law 285Google Scholar.
11 L Chen and CH van Rhee, ‘Introduction’ in Chen and van Rhee (n 7) 3.
12 Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Minfa Tongze General Principles of Civil Law of the People's Republic of China (1986), Gazette of the State Council of the PRC (1986) 72, 371–92 <http://fgk.chinalaw.gov.cn/article/flk/198604/19860400267347.shtml>.
13 For discussion of the origins of tort in China more generally see Lin (n 5).
14 Green, AJ, ‘Tort Reform with Chinese Characteristics: Towards a “Harmonious Society” in the People's Republic of China’ (2008) 10 San Diego International Law Journal 127Google Scholar.
15 ibid 123.
16 Epstein (n 10) 318.
17 For wider discussion of the Chinese legal system at this time, see Lubman, SB, Bird in a Cage: Legal Reform in China after Mao (Stanford University Press 1999)Google Scholar.
18 Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Chanpin Zhiliangfa, Law on Product Quality of the People's Republic of China (1993) <http://www.most.gov.cn/eng/policies/regulations/200501/t20050105_18422.htm>.
19 Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Xiaofeizhe Quanyi Baohufa, Law on Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests of the People's Republic of China (1994) <http://fj.baic.gov.cn/shunyi/detail.asp?ID=1560>.
20 Indeed, Article 41 PQL arguably espouses a clearer product liability principle than the more recent Article 41 TLL as it explicitly includes both property damage and personal injury, a distinction blurred by the TLL which merely refers to ‘harm caused to another person’.
21 Zhao, G, ‘Chinese Product Liability Law: Can China Build Another Great Wall to Protect Its Consumers?’ (2002) 1 Washington University Global Studies Law Review 581Google Scholar.
22 Green (n 14) 129.
23 Shen, WW and Chiu, IHY, ‘Comparative Analysis of Key Aspects of Product Liability Law in China and the United States’ in Campbell, D (ed), Liability for Products in a Global Economy (Kluwer Law International 2005) 311Google Scholar, fn 2.
24 Green (n 14) 130.
25 Zhang, XB, ‘China's Draft Civil Code—Tort Liability Chapter: A Suggested Version with Analysis’ (2002) 3 Si Fa 14Google Scholar.
26 Wang, LM (ed), Draft Civil Code of China: A Suggested Alternative and Discussion (China Legal System Publishers 2004)Google Scholar. All the relevant drafts are outlined and analysed in Conk, GW, ‘A New Tort Code Emerges in China: An Introduction to the Discussion and a Translation of Chapter 8—Tort Law of the Official Discussion Draft of the Proposed Revised Civil Code’ (2007) 30 FordhamIntlLJ 935Google Scholar.
27 See Croll, E, China's New Consumers: Social Development and Domestic Demand (Routledge 2006)Google Scholar for a good overview of the development of the Chinese consumer.
28 ‘NPC Work Report 2010’ <http://cpcchina.chinadaily.com.cn/news/2011-03/09/content_12144307_3.htm>.
29 Chen, S, ‘Sham or Shame: Rethinking the China's Milk Powder Scandal from a Legal Perspective’ (2009) 12(6) Journal of Risk Research 725–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
30 For an overview of the EC Product Liability Directive development and implementation, see Shears, P, ‘The EU Product Liability Directive—Twenty years on’ (2007) JBL 884–908Google Scholar.
31 Borrie, G, The Development of Consumer Law and Policy: Bold Spirits and Timorous Souls (Stevens 1984) 10Google Scholar.
32 J Stapleton, ‘Bugs in Anglo-American Products Liability’ in Fairgrieve (n 9) 363.
33 377 P 2d 897 (1963).
34 Section 402A.
35 Howells, G, Comparative Product Liability (Dartmouth 1993) ch 12Google Scholar.
36 However, this distinction is not always clear-cut: Miller, CJ and Goldberg, RS, Product Liability (2nd edn, OUP 2004) 23Google Scholar.
37 Reimann, M, ‘Liability for Defective Products at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century: Emergence of a Worldwide Standard?’ (2003) 51(4) AmJCompL 751Google Scholar, 770.
38 ibid, 767–71.
39 Brüggemeier, G, Modernising Civil Liability Law in Europe, China, Brazil and Russia: Texts and Commentaries (CUP 2011) 188CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
40 Third Restatement, section 19.
41 Third Restatement, section 1.
42 Reimann (n 37), 765.
43 Harland, D and Nottage, L, ‘Conclusion: Trends towards Strict Liability and Consumer Product Safety Regulation’ in Kellam, J (ed), Product Liability in the Asia-Pacific (3rd edn, Federation Press 2009) 559–78Google Scholar.
44 For more details on the so-called ‘Wang Hai phenomenon’ see B Hooper, ‘The Consumer Citizen in Contemporary China’ (2005) Working Paper No 12, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University, Sweden <http://www.ace.lu.se/images/Syd_och_sydostasienstudier/working_papers/Hooper.pdf>.
45 D Wang and C Madaio, ‘Navigating China's New Tort Liability Law’ (2010) <http://www.milesstockbridge.com/pdfuploads/697_MEEHANCHINAARTICLE.pdf>.
46 L Cui, ‘The Draft Tort Liability Act clarifies the scope of punitive damages’ (2009) <http://www.npc.gov.cn/huiyi/cwh/1112/2009-12/23/content_1531722.htm>.
47 Koziol, H and Zhu, Y, ‘Background and Key Contents of the New Chinese Tort Liability Law’ (2010) 1(3) Journal of European Tort Law 328–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 352.
48 Behrens, MA, Fowler, GL and Kim, S, ‘Global Litigation Trends’ (2009) 17(2) Michigan State Journal of International Law, particularly 187–93Google Scholar.
49 P Neumann and C Ding, ‘China's New Tort Law: Dawn of the Product Liability Era’ (2010) China Business Review, March–April <http://www.chinabusinessreview.com/chinas-new-tort-law-dawn-of-the-product-liability-era/>.
50 See the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of PRC homepage for more details regarding its key responsibilities in this field at <http://english.aqsiq.gov.cn/>.
51 B Li, ‘Overview of China's Product Safety Regime’ (2010) China Business Review.
52 Gov.cn, ‘Office of Legislative Affairs Releases Draft Ordinance on the Management of Defective Product Recalls for Comment’ (2009) <http://www.gov.cn/gzdt/2009-04/08/content_1280582.htm>.
53 Studies have suggested Chinese companies may even suffer higher losses than US companies in the event of a product recall: eg XD Zhao et al, ‘The Impact of Product Recall Announcements on Stock Market Reaction: A Study of Chinese Listed Companies’ (2009) University of Indiana Working Paper <http://www.indiana.edu/~rccpb/uschinacooperation/papers/P9%20Flynn%20and%20Zhao.pdf >.
54 ‘NPC Standing Committee Amend and Revise Consumer Protection Law’ (2013) <http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/xinwen/lfgz/lfdt/2013-10/25/content_1811652.htm>.
55 Lubman, SB, ‘Dispute Resolution in China after Deng Xiaoping: Mao and Mediation Revisited’ (1997) 11(2) Columbia Journal of Asian Law 274Google Scholar.
56 ‘Supreme People's Court Work Report 2012’ (2013) <http://www.chinacourt.org/article/detail/2013/03/id/907830.shtml>.
57 Yu, K, ‘Civil Society in China: Concepts, Classification and Institutional Environment’ in Deng, Z, State and Civil Society: The Chinese Perspective (World Scientific Publishing 2011) 63–96Google Scholar.
58 China Consumers’ Association, ‘2010 China Consumers’ Association Annual Report’ (2011) <http://www.cca.org.cn/english/EnNewsShow.jsp?id=341>.
59 Palmer, M, ‘The Emergence of Consumer Rights: Legal Protection of the Consumer in the PRC’ in Latham, K, Thompson, S and Klein, J (eds), Consuming China: Approaches to Cultural Change in Contemporary China (Routledge 2006) 77Google Scholar.
60 Peerenboom, R, The Long March towards the Rule of Law in China (CUP 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
61 Reimann, M, ‘Product Liability in a Global Context: The Hollow Victory of the European Model’ (2003) 11(2) European Review of Private Law 128–54Google Scholar.
62 Kellam, J and Nottage, L, ‘Europeanisation of Product Liability in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Preliminary Empirical Benchmark’ (2008) 31 Journal of Consumer Policy 217–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
63 Levmore, S, ‘Rethinking Comparative Law: Variety and Uniformity in Ancient and Modern Tort Law’ (1986) 61 TulLRev 235Google Scholar.
64 Peerenboom, R, ‘Law Enforcement and the Legal Profession in China’ in Chen, JF, Li, YW and Otto, JM (eds), Implementation of Law in the People's Republic of China (Martinus Nijhoff 2002) 125Google Scholar, 130.
65 See eg Wong, BKY, ‘Traditional Chinese Philosophy and Dispute Resolution’ (2000) 30 HKLJ 304–19Google Scholar.
66 Chen-Wishart, M, ‘Legal Transplant and Undue Influence: Lost in Translation or a Working Misunderstanding’ (2013) 62(1) ICLQ 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 3.
67 For a discussion of ‘rights-consciousness’ versus ‘rules consciousness’, see Perry, EJ, ‘Chinese Conceptions of “Rights”: From Mencius to Mao- and Now’ (2008) 6(1) Perspectives on Politics 37–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
68 Hunt, EA, ‘Made in China: Who Bears the Loss and Why’ (2009) 27(3) Penn State International Law Review 915Google Scholar, 920.
69 For Europe, see Lovells, ‘Product Liability in the European Union: A Report for the European Commission’ (2003) <http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/single-market-goods/files/goods/docs/liability/studies/lovells-study_en.pdf>. For similar findings in the Asia-Pacific, see Kellam and Nottage (n 62).
70 For example, these issues of bureaucratic tangles are explored in the field of intellectual property rights: Mertha, AC, The Politics of Piracy: Intellectual Property in Contemporary China (Cornell University Press 2005)Google Scholar.
71 Chen (n 29) 737.
72 Legal Daily, ‘Tort Liability Law Impact after 6 Months is Not Large’ (2011) <http://www.legaldaily.com.cn/index_Article/content/2011-01/06/content_2429044.htm?node=5955>.
