Background and Key Contents of the New Chinese Tort Liability Law

The new Tort Liability Law of the People's Republic of China was finally adopted at the 12th Session of the Standing Committee of the 11th Chinese National People's Congress (NPC) on 26 December 2009 and came into effect on 1 July 2010. Thus a further great step in drafting a new Civil Code has been taken, after the enactment of the Contract Law in 1999 and the Law of Real Rights in 2007. In drafting the new Tort Law, the Chinese lawmakers have taken considerable account of foreign legal systems, but nevertheless it is a Chinese codification with many specific features which are of great interest for European lawyers. In the following the authors provide an overview of the most important provisions. As there exist no published legislative preparatory materials, no explanatory notes and no scholarly commentaries on the new Law, the authors had to overcome considerable difficulties in interpreting the new Law; the outcome is, of course, only a first and unavoidably subjective opinion.