The Old Law, such as the HammurabI Code of around 1750, the Hitite Code of around 1400 B.C. and the Hebrey Code of Capillary Law, generally defined several times the cost of multiple losses of victims.
In modern law punitive damages were developed by the Common Law of England. The United Kingdom enacted the first law in 1275 to decide the compensation of damage to the number of ships.
There were two precedent cases (Huckle v. Money case, Wilkes v. Wood case) in which punitive damages were explicitly accepted in the law in 1763, and this was also confirmed in 1766. Later in 1964, upon the judgment of the Rookes v. Barnard case, the system was established as it is today. The punitive damages are currently being done mostly in countries that have a background in the English, American and Canada laws.
Continental legal countries, which consider the differentiation of civil and criminal responsibility the most significant achievement, have been protesting the introduction of the punitive damages compensation system under the special system. But as the punitive damages system punished and restrained illegal actors with high intent and malice, it was inevitable to introduce the system in an era when the net function of maintaining social order was emphasized.
More recently, Continental legal countries have also admitted to the punitive damages or compensation system, which is a feature of the punitive damage compensation scheme under individual laws (food safety, protection of consumer rights, etc.).
However, since the punitive damages compensation system, a special system of the English and American fields, does not take into consideration the Korean legal system, the legal nature of punitive damages is becoming an issue. For many reasons, including the flaws in the current damage compensation system, we feel the necessity of a punitive damage compensation system. But to establish a proper legal system for Korea, we should realize the establishment of a reasonable system with many analyses and studies on punitive damages.
The text discusses the institutional experiences of Britain, the United States, and China, and then the gradual introduction of the system into Korea via experience cases abroad.