The 2nd meeting
of World Tort Law Society and the Academic Conference of Justification of
Strict Product Liability¡± was held in St. Michael¡¯s Monastery Hall, Vienna,
Austria on September 17 to 18, 2015, which were sponsored by World Tort Law
Society, and 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. After the establishment of World Tort Law
Society in Harbin in September 2013 and the holding of the 1st meeting,
the members of World Tort Law Society from over 20 countries worked seriously
to make adequate preparation for this meeting. In the meeting, a deep
discussion was made on the justification of strict product liability and
applicable problems of tort law in road traffic accidents to be discussed in the
next meeting and a public meeting was held in the Festival Hall of Austria
Department of Justice to report the discussion conclusion on the justification of
strict product liability and make an in-depth discussion. In addition to the
members of the society, there were over 100 experts of European tort law and civil
law participating in the meeting and listening to the report. The meeting
obtained a successful ending.

After the rising of
strict product liability in USA, it was widely spread to the whole world. It
played an important role in protecting the legal rights and interests of
consumers. However, with continuous extension of the application scope of product
liability, the justified basis of strict product liability was doubted by more
and more people. The American tort law began to limit the application scope of
strict liability in the field of product liability, but the European Union
adhered to strict liability in the aspect of product liability in its
regulations, which came under criticism and also made an appropriate limitation
to prevent the economic development from being limited through improper
extension of application of strict product liability. In China, strict
liability had a wider application scope in product liability.
In 2013, the annual
meeting of World Tort Law Society revealed the similarities and differences among
various law fields in the world about the product liability rules, based on the
study of three virtual cases, which laid a good foundation for an in-depth
comparative study.
On this basis, four
experts of World Tort Law Society from Asia, Europe, North America and other
region made a comparative report for the product liability laws of various
regions, and finally, the president of the society Prof. Koziol prepared a
report about Product Liability: A Comparative Study Conclusion. In the report,
it was proposed that there were defects in principle of fault liability
applicable to product liability, a too strict producer liability would also bring
out adverse consequences, and then a comparative study was made from the
aspects of contract liability and non-contract liability, the justification of
strict product liability was demonstrated from the aspects of liability based
on illegal act, liability of product dangerousness, liability of industrial
production internal risk, enterprise liability, liability of dependencies
principle, taking consumer protection as the basis of strict liability,
deterrence of strictly liability, risk community and loss dispersion and thus
to discuss the problems such as development risk defense, liability of seller
and importer, applicable strictly liability of service field, whether immovable
property is deemed as a product and innocent victims. It eventually believed
that general strict liability undertaken by the producer due to the damage
caused by defective products was not harmonious with the whole legal system. On
one hand, strict liability went too far, because it was only reasonable within
the scope of typical risks depending on and relevant to the industrial mass
production; and on the other hand, strict liability was too narrow, because
typical risks related to industrial mass production, in fact, were not limited
to commodity production, and also occurred in the construction of immovable
property and the performance of service contract. In the discussion, the
members of the society had made an in-depth discussion and proposed many
suggestions with important value for perfecting the report.

In the public meeting
of Department of Justice on the afternoon of September 17, Prof. Koziol made
the report on behalf of the society. Chinese Prof. Lixin YANG, American Prof. Michael
D. Green, British Prof. Oliphant and South African Prof. Cooper made a
supplementary report for the report of Prof. Koziol respectively on behalf of
four regions. The above reports had aroused wide interests of the participants
who had proposed many problems. These reporters and the participants had made the
in-depth discussion and reached a consensus in many aspects and they agreed
that such comparative law conclusion had very important significance for the
development of product liability laws of various countries in the world.

It
was decided in the meeting that, the 3rd meeting of World Tort Law
Society will be held in USA in November 2017. The meeting will finally pass the
comparative law report of product liability and at the same time make country
reports for applicable scope of tort laws of various countries in the world in
road traffic accidents, in order to provide basic materials for a comparative
law study applicable to road traffic accident law. In addition, it will
determine the discussion topic of 2019 annual meeting of the society to be ¡°Personality
Right and Freedom of Speech: Tort Liability under Internet¡±, at that time, it
will propose a comparative law report for applicable world road traffic
accident tort law and discuss country reports about internet tort liability.
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