| The indemnity of mental damage has always been the hot issue of the law of tort in recent years, but it is mainly about the natural person's compensation rather than the legal person's. Some scholars even demonstrate in many ways that a legal person has no mental compensation. The two acts "The Supreme People's Court's Solutions to Issues on Hearing Cases of Reputation Right" and "The Supreme People's Court's interpretation of issues on confirming mental compensation of tort"--- definitely deny the legal person's claim for mental compensation. This existing state cannot effectively protect the legal person's interests so as to worsen his or her living conditions and even endanger their existence. In my opinion, like the natural person, the legal person should enjoy the claim for mental compensation according to law.The system of mental compensation undergoes the same course of history as any other law, ie. the process of its birth, growth and perfection. Looking back to its development, we can conclude that social progress and changes keep prompting reforms in law, that law's vitality lies in its keeping perfecting, that only when the legal person's relief right get secured can his or her rights be played to full, and that affirming the legal person's claim for mental compensation is of great significance to the realization of the function of the legal person system and also represents the progress in the system of damage compensation.The reason why the legal person should have the claim for mental compensation are based on the following five aspects: First, according to the innate requirements of mental compensation, it includes mental pain and the damage of mental interests, but here the legal person's mental damage refers to the latter. Second, the legal person is an institution who has the capacity of civil right and civil act, and who independently enjoys civil rights and assumes civil obligations according to law. This regulation reveals the intrinsic feature of the legal person, solves the problem of why the legal person can become the independent civil subject, and creates the condition of the subject's qualification for the legal person's claiming for mental compensation. Third, the right of personality is the essential right for the legal person to become civil subject, so the denial of the legal person's mental damage means the denial of his or her personality, which will result in the loss of grounds for the existence of the legal person. Fourth, according to the standardization of the basic principles of civil law, both the legal person and the natural person belong to civil subjects, so they are equal to get the protection. Meanwhile, since the legal person assume given obligations, surely he or she should enjoy given rights to ensure the consistency of rights and obligations. Five, the proposal that the legal person should get mental compensation is in conformity with the legislation aims of mental compensation and embodies the function of mental compensation. The scope of the legal person's mental compensation should be explored from two angles. From the angle of the damage of civil rights resulting from tort, the legal person's mental compensation fit in with the damage of all rights of personality made to the legal person and the damage of part of the identity rights. From the perspective of the interests damaged, the scope of the legal person's mental compensation should refer to the compensation of the mental interests.The legal person's mental compensation remains a very controversial issue in the academic circle and is even denied by legislators in China, but actually the compensation for mental damage can help protect the legal person's legal interests and sanction illegal tort, and it is good for maintaining the stable social order and ensuring the legal person's normal social and economic activities. The study of the legal person's mental compensation also helps perfect our civil law and lays a good foundation for compiling the civil code. Therefore, to enact the legal person's mental compensation, I suggest: First, definitely define the connotation of the concept of mental compensation to avoid the occasion on which the legal person whose interests gets damaged cannot receive the legal and reasonable relief. Second, the legislation of the legal person's mental compensation system should be enacted to ensure the legal interests of the legal person get the legal protection. Third, the principles and standards for the legal person's mental compensation should be set up to try to ensure the cases fair and square dealt with.
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