Legal Research On The Damages Of The Right To Life

The right to life is the most basic and important right. Wheninfringed, it should be strictly protected by law. It is consideredin the theories of civil law that the right to life is priceless andsacred. And it is profane that attempts to fix the right to life aprice. Therefore, when stipulating the damages to the right to life,the property and spiritual damages of the dead and interested personare considered, but the damages to the right to life itself isignored. However, owing to the particularity of the right to life,the traditional theory of civil law is difficult to justify itself,then different theories have formed. Different legislative patternshave caused chaos of the damages of the right to life. Basing onelaborating the elementary theories of the right to life, thisarticle discusses the existing legal system of it, the theoreticalbasement of legislation, and proposes several opinions on perfectingthe system of damages to the right of life.This article is divided into the following four chapters:The first chapter comprehensively introduces the elementary theories of the right to life. At first, it defines what life is, thebeginning and the ending of life; secondly, it makes definite theconcept, content and characteristics of the right to life; at last,it discusses the position in tort law of the right to life. Theobjective of discussing the elementary theories of the right to lifeis to highlight its particularity and the importance.The second chapter is about the discussion and analysis of thesystem of damages to the right to life. At first it analyzes thelegal protection of the right to life in ancient time, and thenintroduces several representative legal models and characteristics ofthe damages to the right to life of foreign countries in modern andcontemporary ages. Afterwards, I detailed introduce the evolution ofthe right to life after the foundation of new China, and analyze theproblems existing in the system of the right to life in nowadays inthe third part.The third chapter is about the legal principle discussion on thedamages to the right to life. The problems existing is just becausethere are not better legislative theories or compensative schemes toback up the constructing of the damages to the right to life of ourcountry. Therefore, the available theories are commented in the firstpart of this chapter, and then their comparative advantages anddisadvantages are pointed out. Based on the results of infringementon the right to life, the theory of the damages to the right to lifeis discussed again in the second part. The discussion on the theoryof the damages to the right to life itself results in that it shouldcompensate the damages to the right to life itself and the right toclaim damages belongs to the family members of deceased. Besides that,I confirm the upbringing or support payments, the loss ofinheritance interests and the spiritual damages that have existed in the system.The forth chapter is about the perfection of the system ofdamages to the right to life. On the guidance of new theory andcombination with the problems existing in the system of damages tothe right to life of our country, I propose some suggestions,including the perfection of regulated and content levels.