What is the state of play for punitive damages and how are they treated around the world? The contributors to this volume discuss the hostility to punitive damages in civil law jurisdictions, their evolution in US law, and recent international developments to answer the question: ‘Who is (still) afraid of punitive damages?’
In 1992, the German Bundesgerichtshof held that it was ‘manifestly incompatible with essential principles of German law to enforce lump-sum punitive damages of a not inconsiderable amount in Germany.’ Whereas German courts have maintained this outright rejection of foreign punitive damages awards, many other jurisdictions have developed a more nuanced approach in recent years. Against this background, the contributors to this volume discuss the reasons for the general hostility to punitive damages in civil law jurisdictions, their evolution in US law, and recent developments in international law before looking more closely at six countries to answer the question: ‘Who is (Still) Afraid of Punitive Damages?’
Table of contents:
Tobias Lutzi: Dashed Hopes and Good Intentions: Changing Attitudes Towards Punitive Damages around the World
I. Afraid of What?Lukas Rademacher: Compensation, Punishment, and the Idea of Private Law -
Jan Lüttringhaus: Punitive Damages and Insurance
II. Why to be Afraid? Catherine M. Sharkey: Who’s Afraid of Punitive Damages for Products Liability Cases?
III. When to be Afraid?Marko Jovanović: Punitive Damages, Public Policy, and the Hague Judgments Convention
IV. Who is (Still) Afraid?Johannes Ungerer: The Rejection of Foreign Punitive Damages in German Law: Unafraid and Principled -
André Janssen: Who is (Still) Afraid of Punitive Damages? A Dutch Perspective -
Béligh Elbalti: Recognition and Enforcement of Punitive Damages in Japan – Quo Vadis? -
Caterina Benini: Punitive Damages in Italy -
Marta Requejo Isidro: Punitive Damages: Spanish Perspectives on Domestic and Cross-Border Settings -
Min Kyung Kim: Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Awarding Punitive Damages: A Korean Law Perspective
V. AnnexClara Ffion Wenzel: Translation of BGHZ 118, 312
