Research On The Compensation For Mental Damage Caused By Infringing Pets

As a companion in people’s life,pet plays a critical role in the modern family.According to diversified surveys,people who raise pets regard these creatures not only as personal properties,but also as the irreplaceable family members and spiritual sustenance.The dual structure theory of “People is the end,property is the means.”becomes deeply ingrained in the traditional Civil Law,however,with the rich development of social life and the plurism of values,especially with the appearance of non-anthropocentrism,people begin to re-examine the relationship among people,nature and property.On the other hand,the scale of pet industry is expanding and the number of people who raise pet is going up,meanwhile the number of infringing pet cases also increases because of the vacancy of laws and low cost of breaking the rules.Apparently,the traditional dual structure theory cannot meet the pratical need applied in pet,which is a special property.How to define the special attribute of pet and how to protect personality interest contained in pet are becoming two urgent issues for law and justice to respond.The theory of personhood property is put forward and developed on the basis of“Animals can only serve as the object of legal relationship”.This theory theoretically supports the view that pet contains personal interest,and practically provides suggestions,including theoretical support and measure guidance about mental injury compensation for infringing pet in judicial practice,for protecting personal interest of pet.The thesis firstly analyzes the difficulties of judgements on the basis of practical cases,in which the behavior of infringing pet causing the mental injury compensation.Then it demonstrates that pet is in line with the legal attribute of personhood property through introducing the concepts of personal interest,and explores the basis of claim and the guiding principle of judicial relief in those practical cases.Guided by the theory of personhood property,the thesis finally puts forward suggestions for constructing the system of mental junry compensation about pet infringement in the view of difficulties in judicial practices.The sugesstions involve the standards and restrictions of pet identification,the determination of the amount of mental compensation,the elements of infringement,and the proposal of evidential burden.The first Chapter mainly discusses the current situation of owner’s mental injury compensation caused by pet infringement.This chapter firstly collects the cases about pet infringement from 2008 to 2019,and analyzes the specific cases.Then it discusses about the current legal status of pet,makes clear that pet belongs to the object of legal relationship,and analyzes the disputes about mental injury compensation caused by property right infringement and breakthroughs in law.In the final of this chapter,it puts forward the difficulties of judicial judgement in these cases,basing on the current judicial explanation and practice.The second chapter mainly expounds the relationship between pet and personhood property,and it discusses the concept of personhood property established in Civil Law,involving the value basis and legal definition about personhood property.In recent year,the dispute about the legal status of pet is becoming a hot topic,and some radicals think that animal can be the subject of legal relationship.However,if that view gets acknowledgement,it will bring subversive impacts on many fields,such as philosophy,law and ethics,and cause great confusion.Therefore,introducing the concept of personhood property into pet protection can better meet the current needs of legislative and judicial practices.Combining with the generality of personhood property and the particularity of pet,the chapter finally demonstrates that pet belongs to personhood property and pet has the need of becoming personhood property.The third chapter analyzes the basis of claim for mental injury compensation caused by pet infringement.First of all,it analyzes the basis of claim based on the theory of personhood property that infringe the right of pet should make mental insury compensation,seeks for the legal evidence for the demand of infringed,and searches for distinctions and connections between that claim and real right claim.Then the chapter analyzes the judicial relief guidelines about these issues,the guidelines mainly involve two principles: public order and good custom,and moderate protection.Guided by the theory of personhood property,the fourth chapter puts forward suggestions for structing the system of mental injury compensation caused by pet infringement in the view of difficulties in judicial judgement put forward in the first chapter.The suggestions provide certain basis and ideas for judicial practices,including the conditions and restrictions about whether pet can be be judged as personhood property,the determination of the amount of mental injury compensation,the composition of infringement elements,and evidential burden these cases.