On the Unity and Separation of Tort Liability for an Employer as an Entity : From the Perspective of the Relationship between a Legal Person's Tort Liability and an Employer's Tort Liability
According to Article 34 Section 1 of the″Tort Liability Law of the People's Republic of China″-where working personnel of an employing party cause damages to others due to performance of their tasks,the employing party shall be subject to tort liability-this article is an important exception to the institutional arrangements of Tort liability Law,which reflects the important characteristics of risk society . Through the research of legal history,it is shown that″General Principles of the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China″was affected by the traditional planned economy system,in which the whole society rejected employment relationship . Hence,only the″single″enterprise was stipulated as legal person's tort liability,and this stipulation was the mode which can only be found in China . With the transition of the economic system and the emergence of socialist harmonious employment relationship,single legislative system was unable to meet the needs of the social reality .Thus,the Supreme People's Court promulgated″Opinions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning the Implementation of the General Principles of the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China″and″Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court of Some Issues concerning the Application of Law for the Trial of Cases on Compensation for Personal Injury,″which adopted binary separation of a legal person's tort liability and an employer's tort liability in the procedural law and the substantive law . This institutional arrangement was close to the″separate″type of Germany,Japan and Taiwan province of China in form,but different from them in essence .The real intention of the institutional arrangements was to distribute inequality tort liability between diversified ownership . According to the principle of equality in civil law,in 2009,Tort Liability Law unified legal person's tort liability and employer's tort liability,and had broken the ownership restrictions to keep in line with the international trend,which is a liability without fault takes the place of a liability for fault,and an employer's tort liability absorbs a legal person's tort liability . The establishment of an employer's tort liability is based upon the inference of the legal logic,as well as the consideration of the social policy .However,its negative aspects should not be neglected .Simple and uniform″employer-employee″subject model,firstly,shows complicated liability forms,and it is not self-consistent in legal logic .Secondly,it can not meet the real demand of the development of civil and commercial laws,and it is against the trend of modern civil law which is evolving the concept from″abstract person″to″specific person .″ This paper attempts to argue that legal person's tort liability should be separated from employer's,and at the same time,a new legal person's tort liability should be established by referring to equitable liability,bankruptcy liquidation and disregard of legal person's personality . In an agency relationship,the bureaucratic″organization relationship″is replacing the ″employment relationship″and″control relationship″as a new occupation-connection standard ;in a representative relationship,representative (including legal representative,legal person's representative,and legal person's representative organ ) behaviors are considered as the company's,and the company should be responsible for them .
翁国民 马俊彦. 论用人单位侵权责任的统一与分立----基于法人侵权责任与雇佣人侵权责任的关系视角[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2014, 44(2): 153-164.
Weng Guomin Ma Junyan. On the Unity and Separation of Tort Liability for an Employer as an Entity : From the Perspective of the Relationship between a Legal Person's Tort Liability and an Employer's Tort Liability. , 2014, 44(2): 153-164.