The prevailing view of Chinese civil law scholars regards employer's liability as vicarious liability without fault. However, Article 9 of the Judicial Interpretation for Liability of Personal Injuries provides that the employer should be strictly liable for compensating the loss of the injured whilst the employee, who caused the injury in mere light negligence, should be privileged from not only the indemnity to the employer but also the claim from the injured party. It is in practice usually so construed that the liability of tort by the side of the employee is not a necessary condition for the liability of the employer. In short, the employer may be liable although the employee is not, which is obviously incompatible with the fundamental idea of vicarious liability and severely criticized by the advocators of the vicarious liability theory.The paper finds that the vicarious liability theory is no longer the development trend of employer's liability and as a matter of fact there exists no pure liability without fault. Even in England and Japan, where employer's liability was traditionally considered as vicarious liability, the courts after taking the duty of the employer into consideration nevertheless tend to exempt the employer from liability only on the ground that the employee was not in execution of his employer's business. The employer's liability is essentially the liability for organizational negligence and derives from the defect of the organization of enterprise. So the employee's liability of tort is not required as a necessary condition for the liability of the employer, otherwise would lead to harmful effects. The light negligence of the employee may only be a by-product of the defect of organization and therefore can be dissolved into the management activities of the employer. Generally speaking, employees in light negligence should be released from the liability of any compensation. In conclusion, Article 9 of the Judicial Interpretation for Liability of Personal Injuries is the one which develops on the basis of the theory of liberation of employee. |