¡°Inaugural
Meeting and the 1st Academic Conference of the World Tort Law
Society¡± was successfully held in the meeting room, 2/F, Aoliante Club, Volga
Manor, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province on September 14 to 15, 2013. It was
an inaugural meeting of such international academic organization the World Tort
Law Society. It was sponsored by the World Tort Law Society, undertaken jointly
by Research Center of Civil and Commercial Jurisprudence of Renmin University
of China, European Centre of Tort and
Insurance Law and Institute for European Tort Law (Austria) and co-organized by
Sino-Russian Cultural Cooperation Collaborative Innovation Center of
Heilongjiang University.
The
topic of this conference was ¡°Product Liability¡±. With regard to the
predetermined three ¡°hypothetical cases¡±, namely brake pad failure, infected
blood, and bridge collapse, the participating tort law scholars from different
countries made a report on basic situations of the law field and discussed
relevant problems according to the predetermined ¡°Questions for Discussion¡±,
namely reasons for introducing strict product liability, the justification for
strict product liability, inconsistencies connected with product liability,
conceptual issues, deficiencies of the rules
in practice and further questions. There were totally 35 Chinese and foreign
guests participating in the conference, including 9 participating guests from
Asia and Russia, 11 participating guests from Europe, 3 participating guests
from North America, 1 participating guest from rest of the world, 2 specially
invited guests and a secretariat and translation group consisting of 10 people.
Thereinto,
the participating guests from Asia and Russia included director of Research
Center of Civil and Commercial Jurisprudence of Renmin University of China Prof.
Lixin YANG, Prof. Zhen YANG of Law School of Heilongjiang University, Prof. Yoshio
Shiomi of Kyoto University, Japan, Prof. Jae-Seon SO of Kyung Hee University of
Korea, Prof. Kirill Trofimov of Far Eastern Federal
University of Russia, Prof. Omprakash V. Nandimath of National Law School of
India University, Prof. Anisah Che Ngah of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Prof.
Jung-Lung Chen of Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan and Prof. Io Cheng TONG of
University of Macao. The participating guests from Europe included executive
director of European Centre of Tort and
Insurance Law, Prof. Helmut Koziol, director of Institute for European Tort Law,
Prof. Ken Oliphant of University of Bristol United Kingdom, Prof. Jean-S¨¦bastien
Borghetti of University of Paris II (Panth¨¦on-Assas), France, deputy director
of Institute for European Tort Law Prof. Ernst Karner of the University of
Vienna Austria, Prof. Donal Nolan of University of Oxford, Prof. Alessandro
Scarso of Bocconi University of Italy, Prof. Monica Hinteregger of University
of Graz of Austria, Dr. Barbara Steininger, Dr. Thomas Thiede and Dr. Eva Ondreasova
of Institute for European Tort Law, and Dr. Laura Ascher of European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law. The participating
guests from North America include Prof. Bruce Feldthusen of University of
Ottawa, Canada, Prof. Michael D. Green of Wake Forest University and Prof.
Catherine M. Sharkey of New York University USA. The participating guest from the
rest of the world is Prof. Mark Lunney of University of New England, Australia.
The specially invited guests include deputy chief judge of Civil Trial Chamber
I of Supreme People's Court, Prof. Hui YAO of Law School of Renmin university
of China and Editor Jinjing XIAO of People's Court Press. The members of secretariat
and translation group include Prof. Tiewei ZHANG and Jianping SHEN of Heilongjiang
University, Prof. Zhanjun JIANG of Huazhong University of Science and
Technology, associate Prof. Zhu WANG of Sichuan
University, associate Prof. Zhanming WANG of Hangzhou Normal University, associate
Prof. Yinhong YANG of Fujian Normal University, associate Prof. Qunrong LV of
Southern Medical University, deputy researcher Chunhua DONG of East China
University of Political Science and Law, lecturer Lu CHEN of Hunan University,
and lecturer Hongjie MAN of Shandong University. Distinguished guests
participated in the conference with full enthusiasm, and the atmosphere in the
conference was warm and solemn.
The
first unit of the meeting was an opening ceremony, which was presided over by
director of Research Center of Civil and Commercial Jurisprudence of Renmin
University of China, Prof. Lixin YANG. Firstly, Prof. Zhen YANG of Law School
of Heilongjiang University gave the welcoming remarks and then the director of
European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law, Prof. Helmut Koziol made an opening speech. As the president of World Tort Law Society, Prof.
Helmut Koziol nominated the director of Institute for European Tort
Law, Prof. Ken Oliphant of University of Bristol United Kingdom, Prof. Michael
D. Green of Wake Forest University and director of Research Center of Civil and
Commercial Jurisprudence of Renmin University of China Prof. Lixin YANG as
members of the executive committee, nominated associate Prof. Zhu WANG of Law
School of Sichuan University as the general secretary of the Executive
Committee, which were approved by acclamation of all participating members.
Subsequently, the three members of the Executive Committee introduced 26
members of World Tort Law Society. Finally, Prof. Koziol presided over the Chinese website opening ceremony of World Tort Law
Society.
The
unit two of the meeting was to discuss the case I ¡°brake pad failure¡±, which
was presided over by the deputy chief judge of Civil Trial Chamber I of Supreme People's Court Prof. Hui
YAO of Law School of Renmin university of China. Director of Research Center of Civil and Commercial Jurisprudence
of Renmin University of China Prof. Lixin YANG, Prof. Jean-S¨¦bastien Borghetti of
University of Paris II
(Panth¨¦on-Assas),
vice-president of Fu Jen Catholic University and dean of Law School Prof. Jung-Lung
CHEN and Prof. Bruce Feldthusen of University of Ottawa,
Canada made a report on the main problems involved in the case in their
respective national or regional law fields in turn. Later it came into a free
discussion link, which was presided over by Prof. Monica Hinteregger of
University of Graz, Austria. The participating guests made heated discussions
on relevant problems such as determination rules of product design defect,
liability for damage of product self-loss and punitive compensation
responsibility, and gave opinions on the basic problems under the tort law such
as interaction between contract and tort law, and the atmosphere was very warm.
The
unit three of the meeting was to discuss the case II ¡°infected blood¡±, which
was presided over by vice-dean of Law School of Heilongjiang University Bin GONG.
For the case, vice dean of Law School of University of Macao Prof. Io Cheng
TONG, Prof. Donal Nolan of University of Oxford, Prof. Catherine M. Sharkey of New York University, Prof. Omprakash V. Nandimath
of National Law School of India University, and Prof. Anisah Che Ngah of
National University of Malaysia made a report on the main problems involved in
the case in their respective national or regional law fields in turn. Later it
came into a free discussion link, which was presided over by Prof. Tiewei ZHANG
of Law School of Heilongjiang University. Relevant problems such as the concept
of product, whether blood and blood products belong to a product, liability subject
and prescribed period for litigation aroused violent discussions between participating
guests, confrontation of languages and thought collision not only showed a deep
excavation for theoretical problems, but also a concern on practical problems.
The
unit four of the meeting was to hold the conference of the Executive Committee,
which was presided over by the president of World Tort Law Society, Prof.
Helmut Koziol and attended by three members and general secretary of the Executive Committee. They made
detailed discussions and came to a conclusion on publication of meeting outcome,
interval of the meeting and place of the next meeting, and discussed and
modified the Rules of World Tort Law Society article by article and submitted
it for resolution of the meeting.
The
unit five of the meeting was to discuss the Case III ¡°bridge collapse¡±, which
was presided over by deputy director of Institute for European Tort Law Prof.
Ernst Karner of University of Vienna Austria. Prof. Yoshio Shiomi of Kyoto
University, Prof. Alessandro Scarso of Bocconi University ofItaly, Prof. Mark
Lunney of University of New England, Australia, Prof. Kirill Trofimov of Far Eastern Federal University, Russia
and Prof. Jae-Seon SO of Kyung Hee University made a report on basic situations
of their respective national or regional law fields for the basic problems
involved in the case. Later it came to a free discussion link, which was
presided over by Prof. Jianping SHEN of Law School of Heilongjiang University,
the participating guests expressed their own opinions and made discussions on
the problems such as whether bridge design defects belong to the adjustment
range of product liability, whether bridge design drawing is a product,
differences between movable property liability and immovable property liability,
differences between liabilities of providing products and services, whether the
construction unit is liable for building a bridge again free of charge. They invested
themselves fully in the conference to make its atmosphere reach a high tide.
The
unit six of the conference was ¡°comparative remarks¡±, which was presided over
by associate Prof. Zhu WANG of Law School of Sichuan University. Prof. Ken
Oliphant, Prof. Lixin YANG and Prof. Michael D. Green respectively represented
European law field, Asian and Russian Law field and American Law field to
release a report of comparative law, made a summary on general problems of
product liability in their respective law fields, and summarized the problems
concentratedly reflected by discussions of previous three cases and provided a
resolution from their own law fields and made a comment on the justification of
strict product liability. Later it came to a free discussion link, which was
presided over by Prof. Zhanjun JIANG of Law School of Huazhong University of
Science and Technology. The participating scholars raised questions and
problems for the core issues in study of comparative law and discussed and
answered them to promote mutual understanding and communication among different
law fields.
The
unit seven of the conference was ¡°work program¡±, which was presided over by
director of Institute for European Tort Law of Austrian National Academy of
Sciences Prof. Ken Oliphant of University of Bristol. All members of World Tort
Law Society attending the meeting made a discussion and took a vote on the
resolutions of the executive committee for publication of meeting outcome,
interval of meeting, place of the next meeting and topic for discussion, and
discussed and voted on the Rules of World Tort Law Society article by article
and proposed some suggestions for revision.
The
unit eight of the meeting was a closing ceremony, which was presided over by Prof.
Zhen YANG of Law School of Heilongjiang University. In the closing ceremony, Prof.
Michael D. Green of Wake Forest University, USA, director of Institute for European
Tort Law of Austrian National Academy of Sciences Prof. Ken Oliphant of
University of Bristol, director of Research Center of Civil and Commercial Jurisprudence
of Renmin University of China Prof. Lixin YANG delivered the closing keynote
address respectively. Three professors as members of the executive committee of
World Tort Law Society, gave a very high praise on successful holding of the
meeting and fully affirmed the driving and promotion actions of World Tort Law
Society for integration and unification process of tort law research in
different law fields of the world, and expressed heartfelt gratitude for
chariness and responsibility of work staff. At last, the meeting came to a
successful ending in a great round of applause of all the participants.
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