Product Liability and a Product Safety Policy

제조물 책임과 제품 안전정책

Despite manufacturers' effort to provide safe and reliable products, a number of product-related accidents occur all over the world resulting in much damage to property, personal injury and even loss of life. Considerable evidence indicates that some accidents arise from user negligence, but most are due to the design, manufacture, and distribution of unreasonably dangerous products when compared to their use. As a result, a tremendous number of product liability lawsuits have been filed, many times causing huge amount of financial damages to manufacturers. Furthermore, with increasing government regulation and growing power of consumer lobbies, manufacturers might be more exposed to product liability claims in the future than now. The objectives of this study are twofold: to provide a framework of future research on product liability and safety and to introduce a product safety policy. To accomplish these objectives, previous studies on product liability and safety were reviewed thoroughly. The product safety policy consists of two parts: (1) an engineering design strategy for reducing product-related risks and (2) a management program for a product liability loss prevention plan. The policy is essential to preventing manufacturers' liability exposure as well as designing a safer product.