On Characterization of the Civil Liability of Certified Public Accountant's False Financial Statements——Taking the Liability to the Third Party as Centre

The characterization of the liability is the key to the question of certified public accountants' liability. It relates to the imputation and causation of the certified public accountant's civil liability directly. The theory of liability for breach of contract, which neglects the important constructive conditions of the liability, has its manifest limitations. Although the theory of product liability can protect investors' benefits, it is not reasonable to take the financial statements as a kind of “product”, because the financial statements differ with the information of the product in the product liability law. The certified public accountant's civil liability for the third party should characterize as tort liability.