How much legal liability you should take if, for example, you borrow a friend's car, but are then involved in an accident? And who should pay the medical bill if your dog bites a passerby?

Questions like these can pose something of a problem, but we may now find the answers in the new tort liability law currently under discussion in the National Peoples' Congress.

The tort liability law is a basic law to protect an individual's civil rights and ensure they can get redress if their rights are violated.

The Beijing-based "Guang Ming Website" published a commentary saying that the long-awaited tort liability law will classify civil wrongs against persons or properties and protect people's rights from been violated.

The article argues that as a "Bible" to deal with civil wrongs, tort liability laws in western countries are specific to each corner of a person's daily life, yet the law in China has developed at a rather more laggardly pace.

In 2007, Chinese courts at all levels accepted 870,000 civil lawsuits. In the face of varied torts, the public are essentially in the dark when it comes to deciding the black and white of an issue, and the general confusion presents difficulties to judges and other law enforcement officials when they make a ruling.

The article praises the draft of the tort liability law, calling it a significant step to provide a comprehensive protection to people's physical and mental well-being and the security of an individual's property.