“Inaugural Meeting and the 1^st 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-Sébastien Borghetti of University of Paris II (Panthéon-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-Sébastien Borghetti of University of Paris II (Panthéon-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 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.