The imposition of punitive damages: a comparative analysis

The purpose of this dissertation is to comparatively analyze the imposition of punitive damages in product liability and consumer protection cases. The main argument of this dissertation is based on the observation that the current Thai product liability and consumer protection system does not encourage plaintiffs to go to court to redress their harms, but instead plaintiffs pursue indirect methods to attract media attention. This is obviously the restraint to the well public order of any society with rule of law and the government needs to take care of such problem. This dissertation offers three potential means to attract people to file cases in court, they include: punitive damages, strict product liability, and class action proceedings. Thailand recently adopted punitive damages and the doctrine of strict product liability through the enactment of Product Liability Act and Civil Procedure for Consumer Cases Act. Class action proceedings, however, are still in the drafting phase but shall be enacted in the near future. The dissertation begins with a discussion about the basic theories that underlie punitive damages, the policy considerations as well as a comparative study on the implication of punitive damages in other countries including, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Japan, Hong Kong, The People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Thailand. The dissertation also discusses in further details regarding punitive damages in Thailand as well as the potential applications of punitive damages in other fields of law such as in medical malpractice and environmental liability in Thailand and other jurisdictions, particularly in the United States. This dissertation also explores in detail some potential methods of applying punitive damages, such as, the methodology of anti-insurance where the punitive damages awards would be paid to a third-party instead of the plaintiff, the effects of punitive damages imposition on the insurance premium, the analysis of whether punitive damages can only be applied in jurisdictions with a jury system by using Quebec as a case study, as well as an overview of the amount of consumer cases submitted to the Supreme Court of Thailand from the available data.

Name thesis:degree_name

J.S.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Law

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Siriviriyakul, Saisiri

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ulen, Thomas S.
• Garoupa, Nuno
• Dharmapala, Dhammika
• Ginsburg, Thomas

• punitive damages
• product liability
• Thailand
• class action proceedings
• strict product liability
• comparative analysis

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2012 Saisiri Siriviriyakul

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/32075

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/32075