THE EVOLUTION AND THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS OF CHINESE CONFLICTS LAW FOR TORTS

Abstract

The legislation of choice-of-law rules for torts has a long history in China. General Principles of the Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China of 1986 (GPCL), Maritime Act of the People’s Republic of China of 1992 (Maritime Act) and Act of the People’s Republic of China on Civil Aviation of 1995 (Civil Aviation Act) provide respectively the choice-of-law rules for general tort, maritime tort and limitation of liability for maritime claims as well as tort arising out of civil aircraft. The Act of the People’s Republic of China on the Application of Laws in Foreign-Related Civil Relations of 2010 (PIL-Act) not only brings developments and changes to conflict rules for tort in general, but also provide choice-of-law rules for product liability, infringement of the right of personality via the internet and liability arising from an infringement of intellectual property rights, which marks that Chinese conflicts law has entered into a new developmental stage and taken on several new trends: (1) Chinese conflicts law system for torts has been basically set up; (2) Chinese choice-of-law rules for torts are becoming more and more diversified; (3) the principle of party autonomy has been fully introduced to tort liability; and (4) judicial interpretations issued or to be issued by the Supreme People’s Court will still play an important role in judicial practice.

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Higher Education Press and Thomson Reuters