| Due to the coexistence of human beings and the universality of causal connections, damage is comprehensive and complex in real society. Nevertheless, only limited damage can be redressed in civil law after they are filtered by some legal skill tools. The scope of damages is determined to a great extend by the legal policy. By the legal skill tools like fault, causation, the rule of no redress to non-property damage in general, the theory of direct victims, the theory of violation of absolute rights, the theory of privity of contract, and the foreseeability rule in contractual liability, etc., a great deal of damage is excluded from the scope of damages. By such means, the legal policy in modern compensation law, which are to maintain maximum economic freedom, to maintain maximum general freedom, and to minimize redress to victims, is fulfilled. However, the modern law of damages focused too much on the freedom of act, thus resulted in a serious defect in the relief of victims. Following the failure of the optimistic rationalism, the emphasis of the relevance among human beings and the pursuit of the substantial justice other than abstract justice in the new legal thoughts, the legal policy determining the scope of damages turns to the emphasis of “limited economic freedom and more fair burden of contractual risk” and “maximum redress to victims under the theory to care for concrete persons”. Adapting to the transition of legal policy, many countries’ legislations or judgments extend non-fault liability and the scope of damages to non-property damage as their positive responses. There are obvious deficiencies in the scope of damages in Chinese tort law and contract law, and the draft of the Tort Liability Law of PRC for Third Discussion has also little progress. To amend and perfect Chinese law of damages, the transition of legal policy in other countries and the corresponding developments in the scope of damages should be considered and used for reference. Only then can a more appropriate scope of damages be determined in the near future. |
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