Research On Compensation For Spiritual Damage In China

Consumers are the important subject of modern economic system, maintaining the survival and development of the entire industry chain and leading production and reproduction of the whole society. Significant progresses have been made in protecting consumers’rights and interests ever since the implementation of the Law of the PRC on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Consumers 21 years ago, which promotes the development of China’s economy. But in recent years, cases in which the interests and rights of consumers are damaged by operators occur occasionally, especially in the field of damaging consumers’mentally. In order to meet the practical needs of guaranteeing consumers’interests and rights comprehensively, in the newly implemented Law of the PRC on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Consumers in 2014, consumers are clearly obliged with the rights to claim for compensations for mental injury for the first time. However, due to problems like vague standards of "severity" of mental injury and the calculation and assessment of compensation amount for mental injury is not unified, it will surely not be able tor fully play its proper meaning in judicial practices. Therefore, by summarizing regulations of both the domestic and foreign legislation practices, the author of this paper analyzes deficiencies about mental injury compensation provisions in the new Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Consumers, and based on which proposes suggestions to improve mental injury compensation so as to guarantee consumers’ legal interests and rights, maintain their dignity, restore their confidence and achieve cohesion with provisions about mental injury compensation in China’s relevant laws and regulations.According to the overall logical ideas and structural arrangement of the research, this paper can be divided into five parts:The first part is the introduction, in which the author first expounds the background and significance of carrying out researches into compensations for mental injurys to customers; in the second section, the author mainly introduces the current researches into compensations for mental injurys to customers in China, foreign countries and Taiwan; and in the third section, the author introducesthe research thoughts and method in this paper.In the second part, the author carries out researches into basic principles of compensations for mental injurys to customers so as to make sufficient foreshadowing for the paper. In the first section, the author defines consumers’ rights; in the second section, the author mainly explains the system of compensations for mental injurys to customers; in the third section, the author compares the differences between mental injury compensation and punitive compensation and disability (death) compensation so as to help readers better understand compensations for mental injurys to customers. In the fourth section, the author introduces the functions of compensations for mental injurys and further demonstrates the complete framework of this right.In the third part, the author specifically analyzes compensations for mental injurys to customers as well as causes of this problem. In the first section, the author analyzes problems existing in the compensations for mental injurys to customers in China,such as difficult realization of compensation for mental damages and great difference of amount of compensation in various places; in the second section, the author analyzes causes of these problems and discusses them from three aspects:vague "severity" of mental injury, dis-unified compensation amount for mental injurys and the lack of personnel protection, etc.The fourth part is relevant provisions in foreign countries about compensations for mental injurys as well as their enlightenment to our country. The author mainly takes the United States, Germany and France as the example to get enlightenment to China in perfecting compensations for mental injurys to customers while identifying personnel protection, identification about nominal compensation for mental injurys and standards to calculate compensation amount for mental injurys as well as the identifying "severity" of mental injurys in these three countries.In the fifth part, the author emphases on proposing suggestions to improve mental injury compensations for consumers in China. In the first section, the author points out that theoretical basis is needed for mental injury compensations for consumers. In the second section, the author mainly elaborates on suggestion of increasing personality protection In the third section is to clarify standards of serious mental injury and to classify the standards of "serious damage ", and the author will provide judges with a reference to judge whether the case meets the standard for mental injury compensation in judicial practice by combing different situations of offenders and victims in cases. The fourth section is unified ways to calculate mental injury compensation for consumers. In this study, by combing China’s current calculating methods as well as borrowing various regulations from all the world, the author proposes unified the minimum compensation standard and graded and free discretionary " composite compensation standard " so as to achieve cohesion with the current system;The fifrth section combines the legal practice of various and assumes that the customers should be compensated properly after sufferring from general mental injurys.