Lawsuits in the US over the quality of Chinese products, and the imminent entry into force of the PRC Tort Law, underline the importance of taking reasonable care
“If you are not comfortable with the safety of what you are selling and if you do not understand the product, perhaps it would be best not to sell it,” says Steven Napolitano, a partner at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom in New York who specializes in US product liability cases.
Companies manufacturing in China and exporting their products to the US face the worrying prospect of product liability action. As Napolitano explains, exporters, retailers and anyone else in the “stream of commerce” are also at risk, and the stakes can be shockingly high. In our feature article this month, Exporting safely to the US beginning on page 43, Napolitano offers detailed guidance on how Chinese companies can minimize the risk of risking everything in a US court.
But it is not only in the United States that companies need to be on their guard against legal action. Product liability law in the US and elsewhere has its origins in the law of negligence – a major branch of tort law. And China’s own Tort Law is set to take effect on 1 July.
The new law consolidates in one statute many provisions which are currently scattered among different laws and regulations, from environmental law to civil procedure law. It has, to a large extent, been influenced by the study of tort law in overseas jurisdictions. It is understood that some of those responsible for drafting the law were keen to incorporate principles from common law systems.
Is this an example of increasing convergence between common law and civil law jurisdictions across the world? This month we also report on new provisions on judicial openness, which came into effect on 8 December last year and (among other things) require courts to make public information about the judgments they reach (see Regulations raise hopes of greater openness in the court system on page 5). Of course, there is no suggestion that case decisions will “make law” in China, as they can in common law countries. But with common law jurisdictions increasingly codifying their law, the sharing of international best practice, and the value of openly publishing information on court cases and decisions being recognized in a jurisdiction such as China, perhaps the divide between common law and civil law systems is narrowing a little.
