Research On The System Of Compensation For Death

As a legal liability that compensates for the right of life beared by tortfeasor, compensation for death is stipulated differently, even contradictorily in our law system. In practice there is controversy on the nature, objects and standard of compensation for death which causes the lawsuit between subjects of distribution, different judgement to the same cases and increased appealed cases. A perfect system of compensation for death is worthed to research.Introduced the stipulations of compensation for death in our law system, this paper demonstrates the indirect evolvement of it in legislation.There are two doctrines about the object of compensation, namely for the dead and for the live。As for the compensation for the live, there are spirit soothing said and missing benefit compensation said which divided into dependent loss compensation and inheritance loss compensation that is acknowledged in our law system.Scattered in many legal provisions, the stipulations of compensation for death is different from each other. For example, the nature of compensation is described as spirit soothing, damages and mental satisfaction while the content and standard of compensation changes with the law of application, the location of case and even the domicile of the dead. The lower standard also arises many social problems.The system of compensation for death should be perfected from the following aspects. The first is to define the nature of compensation as spiritual damage that amends the loss of life. The second is to regulate the principle and content of the compensation for death. Tortfeasor should give atonement to the dead and its relatives because by the tort he infringes right of life and brings spiritual suffering and material damage to the relatives. The content of compensation should involve the compensate for the loss of life to the dead, spiritual and material damages to the relatives and actual payment for the dead. The third is to unify the items and standard of compensation. The items should include the damages to death, loss of income, mental solatium and so on. The damages to death should be definitive in our nation in order to solve the controversies on "life with different prices". Loss of income and mental solatium should be allowed the existence of a reasonable difference. At last, the object and distribution of compensation should be stipulated. The damages to death should be paid for the debt of the dead and the redundant part be inherited. The loss of income should be set aside to the fostered and the overceiling be inherited. The mental solatium should be distributed according to the relation with the dead and be inclined to the family members that live with the dead.