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1 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
commemorative item with symbolic personal
significance63.
d. Punitive Damages for Intellectual Property
The Civil Code is committed to strengthen protection
of intellectual property, and significantly increases
damages for infringement of intellectual property
rights, in order to manifest the deterrent effect of law. It the Civil Code. As a result, the General Provisions
clearly provides that anyone who intentionally infringes
others’ intellectual property rights, under serious
circumstances, may face punitive damages64.
e. Responsibility for Ecological Damages
The Civil Code adds punitive damages for
ecological damages. It states that where a
tortfeasor violates the provisions of law and
intentionally causes environmental pollution
or ecological damage, resulting in serious
consequences, the victim shall have the right
to claim corresponding punitive damages65.
Furthermore, the Civil Code specifies that
for the repair and compensation system for
ecological damage, the relevant state authorities
or organizations may require the tortfeasor to
assume liability for repair within a reasonable
time. If the tortfeasor fails to do so, it shall cover
the cost of repair66.
The Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court
on Several Issues on Applicable Law for Review of
Disputed Cases regarding Liability for Ecological
Damages, Article 14 only provides that at the
infringed person’s request, the court may order
the polluter to assume responsibilities for
repairing the environment. However, the Civil Code
states that not only the courts, but also the other
state authorities or organizations pursuant to law,
may require the polluter to repair the ecological
damages.
5. General Provisions
The General Provisions of the Civil Code consists
of 10 chapters and 204 articles. Compared to the
63 Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on Sev-
eral Issues on Determination of Liability for Psychological
Injury in Civil Matters, Article 4
64 Civil Code, Article 1185
65 Civil Code, Article 1232
66 Civil Code, Article 1234
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previous General Principles of Civil Law, it refines
the guardianship system, civil rights system and
civil liability system, and sets up a special legal
person system. The legislative process of the Civil
Code is divided into two main steps: the first step is
to formulate the General Provisions of the Civil Law,
and the second step is to incorporate other basic
civil laws and General Provisions of the Civil Law into
in the Civil Code has fewer modifications than the
General Provisions of the Civil Law.
D. Conclusion
After years of preparation, the Civil Code will
finally come into effect on 1st January 2021. In
view of the specific situation in China and years of
judicial practice, compared to previous basic civil
laws, the Civil Code reflects important progress.
The entire civil legal system is improved by
enactment of the Civil Code, nevertheless, the need
to clean up all the explanations and interpretations
of the Supreme People’s Court is a major
undertaking, as a result of the bifurcated judicial
system of contemporary Chinese law, where the
Supreme People’s Court’s interpretations have
the same force of law as statutes promulgated by
the People’s Congress. In addition, there are still
inadequacies and gaps that remain to be refined
by laws and regulations. For example, the contract
chapter in the Civil Code only adds regulations on
the basic problems of factoring contracts, while
there are many problems to be further resolved
in practice. Nevertheless, the Civil Code is clearly
an important milestone in the development of
contemporary Chinese law. It provides substantial
personal rights for the Chinese people, based, as it
says, on the Constitution.
The Civil Code is incomplete; many civil laws
have not been included in the Civil Code, yet
it provides for a fundamental establishment
of personal rights that is most important.
Furthermore, it points in the direction of more
comprehensive and rational codification.