On The State Compensation Of Damage Caused By Public Facilities

As the government enhances its function of the public service, it appears more and more damages suits resulting from the tort affecting the public utility facilities. It's difficult to decide their nature is Administrative Indemnity or civil compensation. And this question is hotly debated in the administrative field. Because Governmental Compensation Act will be amended, this question becomes more and more important. But we have no treatise in this field and only a few articles about this, which bring us some challenges.This article states that these damages suits belong to Administrative Indemnity, so they should be the part of Governmental Compensation Act. First it introduces the concept of the public utility facilities. It thinks the concept includes the general concept and special concept. At the same time it tells us some countries' legislative general conditions about the public utility facilities, such as America, Britain, Germany, France and Japan. Then it makes a comparison among the building, the public building, the public property and the public utility of the public undertaking.Second the article discusses that the theoretical basis of these damages caused by the tort affecting the public utility facilities are the theory of dangerous liability and the theory of the public service. As the government increases the public utility facilities, it makes these damages suits becoming ordinary. In many countries Governmental Compensation Act have include these damages suits. Compensation liability happens many changes in the history. The first country is France that founded the system of Governmental Compensation. This article introduces the history of dangerous liabilityfrom negative time to relative positive time far to overall positive time, and it tells us how the theory of the public service develop and the difference between it and the theory of the administrative service in Germany.Then the article analyses four component parts of the damages caused by the tort affecting the public utility facilities. The first part is to be the public utility facilities. The second part is to exist the defect on the public utility facilities. The third part is to exist the real damage in the citizen. The last part is to exist the causal relation between the damage and the defect. Meanwhile it discusses how to exercise the damages claim from the person concerned, the procedural step and the method and scope of the compensation. It specially introduces two kinds of procedural step, which are French procedural step and the procedural step of Taiwan province.At last, it tells us legislative general conditions about the public utility facilities in our country. Then it analyses why and how we bring the damages caused by the tort affecting the public utility facilities into Governmental Compensation Act. At the same time, it points the possibility of bringing the damages caused by the tort affecting the public utility facilities into Governmental Compensation Act. On the other hand, it also expounds some problems that we should pay attention about the damages. The first is how to distinguish the liability caused by the tort affecting the .public utility facilities and the civil liability of the public undertaking. The second is the exemption of the tort affecting the public utility facilities. And the last is how to compensate if government doesn't place the public utility facilities.