Product liability in tort from european unions law and vietnamese law perspectives preliminary proposals for vietnam

HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF LAW MANAGING BOARD OF SPECIAL TRAINING PROGRAMS BACHELORS’ THESIS REGULAR TRAINING COURSE 34 (2009 – 2013) PRODUCT LIABILITY IN TORT FROM EUROPEAN UNION’S LAW AND VIETNAMESE LAW PERSPECTIVES PRELIMINARY PROPOSALS FOR VIETNAM STUDENT : LA THI VAN ANH STUDENT ID : 0955010003 CLASS : HIGH STANDARD CLASS 34 SUPERVISOR : M.A DO THANH CONG HO CHI MINH CITY, 2013 PREFACE During my studying in HCM University of Law, I was trained to achieve a solid legal knowledge Every legal field was a new experience with joy and interests to me Gradually, I made up my mind and choose the issue of product liability in tort as a topic for my bachelors’ thesis, since I had a lot of chances to approach this issue, especially in the two subjects “UK law on product liability” and “Tort law”, and I am really interested in this field In this thesis I select European Union’s Law as a yardstick to compare to Vietnamese Law because the legal situation in European Union was rather similar to that in Vietnam Due to difficulties in approaching reference documents in English, my research might not be comprehensive The term “product liability” is rather new in Vietnamese legal science, so I hope my thesis will be helpful for subsequent research in this issue I am greatly indebted to M.A Do Thanh Cong, who is supervisor of my thesis, for his professional and emotional sharing and support ABBREVIATIONS ADR – Alternative dispute resolution EEC – European Economic Community EU – European Union ECJ – European Court of Justice LPGQ – Law on Products and Goods Quality (Vietnam) ODR – online dispute resolution OPCI – Ordinance on the Protection of Consumers’ Interests (Vietnam) VCC 2005 – Vietnamese Civil Code 2005 WTO – World Trade Organization TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER Overview of Product Liability in Tort 1.1 The formation and development of the product liability doctrine 1.2 Definition and nature of product liability in tort 1.2.1 Definition and feature 1.2.2 Nature of the product liability in the area of tort 10 1.3 1.3.1 1.3.2 1.3.3 1.3.4 1.4 Basic content of the product liability under the law of tort 10 Object of product liability 10 Parties to a product liability action under the law of tort 14 Theories of product liability in tort 16 Seeking Damages 20 The meaning of the product liability in tort in the legal system 21 CHAPTER The European Union’s Law on product Liability and some issues on product liability in Vietnamese law 23 2.1 The European Union’s Law on product Liability under the area of tort 23 2.1.1 Overview of product liability law in European Union 23 2.1.2 Basic content of product liability law under the law of tort in European Union 25 2.2 Some issues on product liability in tort in Vietnamese law 36 2.2.1 Overview of product liability in tort in Vietnamese Law 36 2.2.2 Product liability in the recent regulations of law 37 CHAPTER Some experience for Vietnam from studying the product liability law in EU and some proposal to improve product liability in Vietnamese law 48 3.1 Comparative comments on product liability in Vietnamese Law and European Union’s Law under the area of tort 48 3.2 3.3 Some experience for Vietnam from studying product liability law in EU 50 Some proposal to improve product liability in Vietnamese law 51 3.3.1 Amendment of legal grounds 51 3.3.2 Some specific proposals in legislating product liability law in Vietnam 52 CONCLUSION 55 INTRODUCTION Economic development in Vietnam has been contributing to the increase in living standard, which leads to higher demands in quality of products and services However, along with the qualified ones, products of bad quality and even dangerous for consumption are still spreading in the market Allocating legal responsibility for defective products and low quality products is the main role of law on product liability and law on protection of consumers Recently, law on protection of consumers, especially provisions on product liability, have been amended with a number of remarkable changes These changes have shortened the gap in product liability regulations between Vietnam and other developed countries However, because the product liability is quite new and there are some other reasons, the provisions on this issue still contain some limitations Therefore, the role of protecting consumers is still not brought into play Globalization and global economy integration is a current trend in every fields of socio-economy Along with that trend, Vietnam also enforced legal provisions on product liability, as well as protection of consumers, and ensure that those provisions are in compliance with international law In the meantime, studying more and more from the other countries is necessary as well Vietnam is currently in the process of integration, which means Vietnam should study more experiences from other countries, especial those in European Union, where consumers’ interests are very well protected.1 The reason I chose law in European Union as the yardstick for analysis and comparison with Vietnamese law is that the law on protection of consumers, including law on product liability, in European Union is considered strict and is possibly applied, which leads to the result that consumers in Europe is protected very efficiently and the legal situation in European Union was rather similar to that in Vietnam Every country has its own ways of applying product liability The liability of manufacturers, producers, retailers for defective product, that was accepted broadly, includes: Contractual liability and tortious liability Contractual liability deals with the situations where there is a contractual relationship between the plaintiff consumer and the Pham Thi Phuong Anh (2009), Ground for Damages in Tort owing to Defective Products- A comparative study of Vietnamese and English law, Masters’ Thesis, HCMC University of Law, p.6 manufacturer directly However, the tortious liability was applied mainly when there is no contractual relationship between producer and the final consumer of the goods, usually because of the existence of a long chain of distribution.3 The toutious liability is also what my thesis will focus on Necessity Researching law on product liability in tort is a pressing issue, because: - Provisions on product liability in Vietnam are quite new and contain many limitations, which not ensure to effectively carry out the role of protecting consumers - The issue of protecting consumers as well as the concept of product liability is currently important and pressing not only in Vietnam but also in the whole world Especially in this current period of time, while Vietnam is step – by – step building the market economy, the issue of protecting consumers and provisions on product liability need to be more concentrated and developed - Unqualified and defective goods and services are spreading increasingly on the market, causing great damage to people’s health, and not satisfy the consumers’ interests and expectations - Carrying out provisions on protection of consumers and product liability is still in reasoning but not actually making it effectively in practice Purpose My thesis aims is to present an overview of product liability in tort in each of Vietnam and EU, clarify the rationale of tortious product liability in EU’s Law and Vietnamese Law On those basis, it also gives some comparative opinions about the legal issues above and draws out experiences in order to develop and improve the effect in carrying out provisions on protection of consumers in Vietnam, proposes to amend Vietnamese legal provisions, which helps to protect consumers’ legal rights and interests, prevent in time producers from spreading low quality products and services in the market Demetrius Andreas Floudas, Some aspects of liability for defective products in England, France and Greece after directive 85/374/EEC, p.1 Source: http://www.intersticeconsulting.com/documents/Product_Liability_EU.pdf, 05/08/2013 10.50 Demetrius Andreas Floudas, above n 2, p.2 Methods While researching the topic, the author used the following methods: - Analysis method: analyzing the provisions in EU’s law, Vietnamese law as well as - other countries’ law on product liability in tort Synthesis method: giving a general view of the concept of product liability in EU’s law and Vietnamese Law - Listing method: listing the system of legal document related in order to easily follow and to make some basis for the reasoning Comparative method: based on the analyzed concept, presenting some comparative comments to clarify the differences in the issues of product liability in EU’s law and in Vietnamese law Delimitations The main concern of my thesis is product liability in tort, although a number of issues related to product liability in contract are also mentioned During the research, the author will analyze and compare product liability in tort in EU’s law and Vietnamese law, in regard to such questions as: who are the potential plaintiffs and defendants to the action? What degree of fault is required for liability? What kinds of loss can be compensated? Which defences are available? And how are damages to be computed? Beside, when analyzing law on product liability in EU, the thesis will mainly concentrate on analyzing the provisions in Directive 85/374/EEC When analyzing law on product liability in Vietnam, the author will concentrate on analyzing the provisions in The Law on Products and Good Quality 2007 and The Law on protection of Consumers’ Right 2010 Structure of the thesis Along with the Preface, Conclusion and the Reference, my thesis is divided into chapters: • Chapter 1: Overview of Product Liability in Tort • Chapter 2: The European Union’s Law on product Liability and some issues on product liability in Vietnamese law • Chapter 3: Some experience for Vietnam from studying the product liability law in EU and some proposal to improve product liability in Vietnamese law CHAPTER OVERVIEW OF PRODUCT LIABILITY IN TORT 1.1 The formation and development of the product liability doctrine “Product liability” plays an important role in many developed countries Almost every country has regulated the product liability institution to protect consumers efficiently and comprehensively Throughout the history, product liability regime has proved its purpose in protecting consumers as well as manufacturers “America is a nation which first applies and develops product liability institution”.4 America’s legal instrument on protecting the interests of consumers has a deep effect influence and spreads widely to other countries all over the world European Union, after studying from the success of America’s product liability law, also developed their own product liability scheme and showed their efficiently protection on consumer’s interest In order to understand the theory and practice of products liability law, it is necessary to understand its history and development The formation and development of the product liability institution have a close relationship with the fall of the doctrine of privity.5 Under the doctrine of privity, there is a general rule that a contract creates no duty to the third parties and only the contracting parties may demand to execute their rights or claim for their compensation.6 A famous expert on product liability law, Professor William Prosser, has put it: “The history of product liability law is really the history of an assault on the citadel of Privity It is also the history of how injured people were given back the keys to the courthouse, and allowed a remedy at law for the injuries they suffered as a result of defective and unsafe products”7 Based on this theory, contractual product liability was strongly favoring manufacturers A “general rule” was applied for a long time that a manufacturer could M.A Tran Thi Quang Hong, Truong Hong Quang (2010), “Mot so van de chung ve che dinh trach nhiem san pham va vai to cua che dinh duoi goc bao ve nguoi tieu dung” (Some general issues on product liability institution and its role under the view of protecting consumers), State and Law Review Journal, No.12/2010 The doctrine of privity means that a contract cannot, ordinarily, confer rights or impose obligations arising under it on any person except the parties to it See more at: http://www.lawteacher.net/contract- law/privity.php#ixzz2U30U24IL, 12/07/2013 12.30 M.A Tran Thi Quang Hong, Truong Hong Quang (2010), above n Denis W Stearns, (2001), Product liability: A brief history of its early origins, Marler Clark, LLP, p.1 Source: http://www.marlerclark.com/pdfs/intro-product-liability-law.pdf, 06/08/2013 8.30 advanced enough to detect the risks in products before they cause damage; in this case the producers, importers, or sellers shall be free from liability.160 160 S 62(1)(e), the LPGQ, & s 62(2)(e), the LPGQ and Art 24 the Law on Protection of Consumers’ Rights 2010 47 CHAPTER SOME EXPERIENCE FOR VIETNAM FROM STUDYING THE PRODUCT LIABILITY LAW IN EU AND SOME PROPOSAL TO IMPROVE PRODUCT LIABILITY IN VIETNAMESE LAW 3.1 Comparative comments on product liability in Vietnamese Law and European Union’s Law under the area of tort Law on product liability in Vietnam has been considerably amended and developed after the enforcement of The Law on Protection of Consumers’ Rights 2010 The changes and new provisions of the product liability institution are based on the studying of other developed countries’ experience of law on product liability, including European Community After a process of legislation, current law on product liability in Vietnam has a lot of similarities in laws of European Community Beside, there are also differences due to the differences in economy, society, culture, as well as the legislative level About the regime of product liability, both Vietnamese law and EU law apply strict tort liability for consumers, who suffer from defective product, seeking damages However, Vietnamese legal system does not have any specific document regulate product liability as well as there is no specific definition of product liability The current Vietnamese law on product liability is regulated in different legal documents, which leads to the conflict in those provisions and the difficulty to apply them in practice While the legal system of EU on product liability show its efficiently work on protecting the consumer’s interests Vietnamese law regulate that product liability is applied to organizations, individuals trading in products, goods and other organizations, individuals with their operation related to the quality of products and goods in Vietnam Trade organizations, individuals comprise producer, importer, exporter, wholesalers Thus, it is similar to the provisions of Directive 85/374/EEC of EC about the chain of subjects that may bear product liability However, provisions of law on liability of each subjects in the product supply chain is still not as particular as in Directive 85/374/EEC Besides, EU’s law regulates about joint and several liability, while Vietnamese law doesn’t The remarkable distinction between Vietnamese and EU’s law on the notion of products is that ‘products’ in Vietnamese law contain services, while in EU’s law, service 48 liability is not treated in the same way.161 The definition of ‘products’ in Vietnamese law is rather vague and also not regulated as particularly as in EU’s Law One of the differences is that intangible products are not expressly excluded in the scope of the product in Vietnamese law, while the scope of the product in EU’s law is presented very clearly Besides, while Vietnamese law holds generally that there must be an illegal act/omission, EU’s law requires the defectiveness of products This requirement is more appropriate in the case of product liability Causal relationship is an indispensable element in both laws, but the provisions on illegal acts/omissions and the defectiveness of products make it slightly different in each case Vietnamese scientific theories in civil law concern only the causal relationship between an illegal act/omission and damage In order to impose tortious liability on a person conducting an illegal act/omission, the causal relationship between his illegal act/omission and the damage must be proved, while under EU’s law a causal relationship between damage and defective products must be proved The most easily recognizable similarity between Vietnamese and EU’s law on grounds for product liability in tort is the presence of damage Kinds of damage is determined similarly as in Directive 85/374/EEC of EC, however Vietnamese law doesn’t regulate the minimum and maximum limitation of the damage Besides, non-material damage, pure-economic loss and business loss is expressly excluded from the Directive 85/374/EEC while the Civil code 2005 Vietnamese law regulate this issue (clause 2, Art 609) Although eliminated the “fault” factor, meaning Vietnam orient product liability to strict liability institution of trade organizations, individuals; law on product liability in Vietnam still lack of provisions to regulate that consumers have the right to claim for damage to any subjects in the product supply chain, as in EC’s law on strict liability In the limitation period, in EU’s law, a prescription period of 10 years being introduced under Article 11 Directive 85/374/EEC force the product liability upon producers This is the difference in limitation period between EU’s law and Vietnamese law as well as other countries Most countries have regulations on limitation period for 161 Pham Thi Phuong Anh (2009), above n 1, p.28 49 producer to implement their liability, but have no regulation on limitation period releasing them from their liability.162 Other remaining grounds for product liability in both two laws is similar to each others, however in EU’s law, the concept of product liability is still more concentrated in regulating, while in Vietnamese law, product liability is still a brand new issue and is put in several legal documents or combined with the issue of protecting consumers’ interests 3.2 Some experience for Vietnam from studying product liability law in EU Concentrating on the issue of regulating product liability helps EC to create a trading atmosphere of high responsibility, protect consumers’ interests in time and efficiently Furthermore, the enforcement of provisions related to product liability right from the beginning will be positively efficient to the process of amending, updating in accordance with the actual needs in practice.163 Vietnam is in the time of developing law on product liability, therefore the researching and studying other developed countries’ provisions, including EU is absolutely necessary Provisions in EC on product liability is quite unified and appropriate, and is made into the countries own law quite adequately, helping to make some considerable changes and harmonization in the member countries’ law on product liability Those provisions that are enforced in the Directive are flexible, enable to determine the member countries’ orientation during the process of legal developing in their own countries Meanwhile, law on product liability in Vietnam still doesn’t show its harmonization, unification, but is scattered in regulating Therefore, European law is considered one of the legal structure that Vietnam needs to learn from Provisions of EC on product liability are quite particular and clear Particularly, the most important concepts in this institution, such as the range of subjects, definition of product, time limitation… is regulated in detail More important, the Directives of EC had the general concepts that is very open, which helps the member countries regulate particularly some issues, such as the amount of compensation for damage Therefore, law in EC is particular, flexible, appropriate to the natures in EC’s legislation Moreover, provisions in EC on dispute settlement related to product liability are quite specific and particular Those provisions help the member countries to settle the conflicts of law, and 162 Truong Hong Quang (2013), above n 108, p.11 163 Ngo Thi Ut Quyen (2012), above n 112 50 also create an advantage for the damaged party to more easily legally sue the producer for product liability Thus, law on protection of consumers, including law on product liability in EC is considered strict and is possibly applied, which leads to the result that consumers in Europe are protected very efficiently.164 3.3 Some proposal to improve product liability in Vietnamese law Currently, protection of consumers’ interests is concentrated by the State and the whole society However, the practice showed that the will to follow law on protect liability of Vietnamese corporation is quite poor, comparing to the common standards, to other countries in the region and in the world In practice, there are many product of low quality and even endanger consumers such as soy sauce containing 3-MPCD which may cause cancer, the Chinese milk containing industrial chemical melamine which cause kidney stones for 300.000 children.165 In the field of safety food and hygiene, law had the certain provisions, but the application is usually hard due to the difficulty of inspection and management, while violations can occur at anytime Although the new enforced legal provisions in Vietnam on protection of consumers’ interests fixed the restraining of the former provisions, the protection of consumers’ interests as well as product liability still have many shortcomings and need to be amended In the future, in order to protect the rights and interests of consumers better, there should be more measures for this situation, particularly unified solutions in legislation, execution and judicature Social and political organizations should also participate in to help 3.3.1 Amendment of legal grounds Recognized deeply the role and the importance of protecting consumers’ interests, the State should consider protection of consumer is an effective tool to develop the economy; moreover, improving law on product liability is a necessary factor for international integration On that basis, we can make an appropriate investment to amend and improve law on product liability They need a more deserved position in Vietnamese legal system Furthermore, product liability issue in Vietnamese law is currently regulated of several different laws Therefore, amending the legal grounds is developing 164 Ngo Thi Ut Quyen (2012), above n 112 165 http://www.spsvietnam.gov.vn/Lists/Tin%20tc%20Vit%20Nam/DispForm.aspx?ID=73, 06/08/2013 23.55 51 not only law on protection of consumers’ interests, but also civil law166, criminal law, law on quality of products and goods, Civil procedure law… , meaning the amending should be systematic and unified in the whole legal system.167 Product liability institution is currently developed in the improving orientation by learning from other countries Therefore, the constructing of the legal documents regulating product liability independently is absolutely necessary in the present time Provisions on product liability also need to fix the unsound factors remaining, comprising of: the systematic and unified law on product liability; the regulating of issues which haven’t regulated by the law yet; provisions that need to be clearer, specific, helping other participating subject and other related subject, not bothering them 3.3.2 Some specific proposals in legislating product liability law in Vietnam Some proposals in legislating product liability law, on the basis of studying European law in particular and other developed countries in general The current Vietnamese law on product liability is regulated in different legal documents, which leads to the conflict in those provisions and the difficulty to apply them in practice The new legal documents regulate some issues about product liability, such as The Law on Protection of Consumers’ Rights 2010 has amended many limitations in the former legal document, however the issue of which legal documents to apply is still one limitation Thus, resolve the conflict among those provisions on product liability in legal documents is a pressing and necessary task to create an efficient legal ground to this issue Beside, it is recommended that The LPGQ should not separate ‘products’ and ‘goods’ because goods are products per se Because most countries utilize ‘product liability’ to name the liability imposed on those who are concerned with the supply of 166 For instance, the amending of the Civil Code related to compensate for damage outside the contract needs to be concentrated on, such as provisions of time limitation, kinds of damage that are enable to be compensated… Although the current Civil Code has presented quite adequately those kinds of damage that are enable to be compensated, there should be a more proper method to determine the amount of compensation Meanwhile, it still lacks of provisions about damage that does not happen at the time but is accumulated in a while, and there are kinds of damage that are hard to determine to each individuals, although science has already possible proved the potential damage 167 Ngo Thi Ut Quyen (2012), above n 112 52 products The term ‘product liability’ should also be used in Vietnam This concept will assist Vietnam in international trade.168 The Government should adopt legal instruments which can clarify the concept of products, especially what products comprise They should expressly exclude intangible products The more the government clarifies the notion of products, the easier Vietnamese individuals, and business entities will find it when they deal with product Beside, we should also consider some other proposals, such as adding the right to sue of consumers which help them to sue anyone participated in the producing, trading and providing products chain, or it should be stated clearly that the one causing the damage must compensate the petitioner’s costs (such as transportation cost, the time they spent for the suit, the cost of hiring a lawyer…) Joint liability of the mentioned subjects is still not regulated clearly, leading to the avoiding responsibility of them while consumers’ interests are still not secured There should be some help, as well as mechanism for organs, organizations and individuals to co-ordinate together for the protection of consumers’ rights, because it is an issue that needs the participating of the whole society It is necessary to improve the responsibility and the effect in the operating of the legal executing organs; the responsibility of trade organizations, individuals and the perception of self-protection of consumers - First of all, towards the legal executing organs, the administrative organs, the system of the People’s court, the authorized organs of protecting consumers should be granted more capacity Those organs need to coordinate together and with other authorized organs which have the specialty of inspecting and supervising trade organizations, individuals; discover and handle in time, strictly the violation behaviors to protect consumers, especially the one to violate the safety and quality of products’ provisions The authorized organs should make press conference and provide information to journals, publish broadly and quickly the information about violations of law on protecting consumers, about the products’ quality - Towards trade organizations, individuals, the legal grounds of the liability of producer to consumers should be improved and it is necessary to settle strictly the violation behaviors of the corporations Producer must recognize and follow the quality 168 Pham Thi Phuong Anh (2009), above n 1, p.28 53 standards of products, improve the capacity of producing, the quality of kinds of products that serve the needs of consumers by measures such as investing in modern scientific industry, developing technology in order to reduce risks and defects in product Producer must have some methods to avoid, overcome in time the risks which occur to consumers, carry out strictly the liability to compensate for damage causing by the defective product - Towards consumers, it is necessary to carry out some measures, such as legal education about protecting consumers broadly and efficiently, so the consumers should know and use effectively their rights, especially the right to complain, to claim for compensation; teaching and disseminate the knowledge of consumption, ensure the right to form associations and organizations voluntarily by consumers which protect consumers and work for the purpose of consumers That is some main proposals in order to improve the legal provisions on product liability in Vietnam Those proposals are at a level of reasoning research In order for the protection of consumers’ interests and the constructing of product liability institution to be carried out seriously, strictly and effectively, it is indispensable to have the efforts, the will of the authorized organs and the responsibility of both consumers and producers 54 CONCLUSION Product liability is an important issue that should be concentrated to develop in countries all over the world Socioeconomic and legal measures are implemented in order to protect efficiently legal rights and interests of consumers, as well as producers Almost every country in the world have already had very close provisions for this issue At the moment, in the time of international economy integration, the issue of protecting consumers’ interests in general and the issue of product liability in particular is one of the priorities in Vietnamese policies, laws and practice However, comparing to laws on product liability in the world or in other countries, Vietnamese law on product liability is still not developed Although the concept of product liability has started to come into being and Vietnamese law have some important and positive changes, showing a big turning point about law on product liability through provisions in the Law on Protection of Consumers’ Rights, Civil Code, law on quality of products , those provisions is not yet to become product liability institution The reason is that they are not built on the basis of product liability institution, and the access from the view of field management This might lead to overlapping and conflict in the system of provisions on product liability, and so it has not yet to become an effective tool to protect consumers Take a quick looking back at the stuffs achieved, it seems that product liability issues and the protection of consumers’ interests in Vietnam is still restrain, because although we has already had a legal system to protect consumers’ interests which had some changes but there are still many unsound factors remaining and consumers’ interests are not considered appropriately; many corporations providing goods and services ignore consumers’ rights and interests; the policies to support the activities of organizations that protect consumers is still limited Violated behaviors towards rights and interests of consumers are still common and not handled strictly, consumers still have to take the considerable damage Meanwhile, EC’s law on protecting consumers in general and on product liability in particular is considered one of the strictest in the world EC’s law also regulates quite adequately and particularly strict product liability of the producer Thus, this is an ideal model for Vietnam while constructing and developing legal grounds of product liability Therefore, the issue for Vietnam in the background of international economy integration is to continue to develop law on protection of consumers’ legal rights and interests, especially the issue of product liability of producer trading goods In the market 55 economy, the role of consumers is very important, therefore in order to boost and develop producing and the economy faster and more improved, it is necessary to protect the rights and interests of consumers in the most effective way 56 REFERENCES TABLE OF STATUTES AND OTHER LEGAL INSTRUMENTS VIETNAM Civil Procedure Code 2004 by the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Civil Code of Vietnam 33/2005/QH11 by the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Commercial Law No.36/2005/QH11 by the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Law on Products and Goods Quality No 05 /2007/QH12 of the National Assembly The Law on Protection of Consumers’ Rights 2010 by the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Ordinance on the Protection of Consumers’ Interests 1999 Decree No 55/2008/NĐ-CP of 24 April 2008 providing for the implementation of the Ordinance on the Protection of Consumers’ Interests 1999 in detail by the Government Decree 99/2011/ND-CP Detailing and Guiding a number of articles of the Law on Protection of Consumer Rights Resolution No 03/2006/NQ-HĐTP of the Supreme Court’s Committee of Judges on 08 July 2006 guiding on the application of some regulations of the Civil Code 2005 on Tort of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam 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product liability in Vietnamese law 48 3.1 Comparative comments on product liability in Vietnamese Law and European Union’s Law. .. studying the product liability law in EU and some proposal to improve product liability in Vietnamese law CHAPTER OVERVIEW OF PRODUCT LIABILITY IN TORT 1.1 The formation and development of the product. .. tort in Vietnamese law 2.2.1 Overview of product liability in tort in Vietnamese Law The concept of product liability is new in Vietnam The legal system of product liability is not a particular law,