Understanding the connotation of compensation for mental damage (2007-05-1516: 4102) Classification: Understanding the connotation of compensation for mental damage in legal research is a philosophical category corresponding to matter and consistent with consciousness, and it is the general name of people's conscious activities and their contents and achievements determined by social existence. Marxist-Leninist philosophy holds that spirit is the product of highly organized matter, that is, the human brain, and the result of people's ideas and thoughts in the social practice of transforming the objective world. It includes two levels, one is spiritual production, and the other is spiritual activity. The concept of spirit in law mainly refers to mental activity, which is usually associated with compensation for mental damage. It includes physical and mental activities and activities to safeguard spiritual interests, and more reflects the phenomenon of objective things and its relationship with people's emotions, feelings, thinking and will. The word "mental damage" originated from the lawsuit of insulting evaluation in Roman law. Article 1 of the Eighth Table of the Law of Twelve Bronze Tables in early Rome stipulated that "anyone who slanders others with words or publicly sings lyrics insulting others shall be sentenced to death". Fundamentals of Roman Law, Ping Jiang, Mi Jian, China University of Political Science and Law Press. 199 1 Edition. This is the initial germination of the compensation system for mental damage. The term mental damage is not uniform in various countries, and it is called "personal non-property damage" in the legislation of many countries and regions in the world. The term mental damage is not used in the legislation of most countries, and only a few countries use it in their legislation. For example, Article 22 17 of the Philippine Civil Code stipulates that "mental damage includes physical pain, mental intimidation, extreme anxiety, reputation slander, emotional injury, mental stimulation, etc." 1 Paragraph 15 1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which was implemented in March 1996, stipulates "compensation for mental damage", in which paragraph 2 stipulates: "If a citizen suffers from mental damage (physical or mental pain) and other circumstances stipulated by law, the court may order the infringer, who is currently in Article 155 of the law generally defines mental damage as "physical, psychological or fear harm to others." "Article 120 of the General Principles of Civil Law of our country only uses the word' loss' when stipulating four situations of infringement of personality rights. Later, the Supreme People's Court 1993 published "Answers to Several Questions about Hearing Reputation Cases", which clearly used the word "mental damage", but what is mental damage is not clear, and there are many definitions of mental damage in academic circles. There are roughly two kinds. In a narrow sense, mental damage is considered as "non-property damage has nothing to do with fertility decline or should be increased instead of increased;" "Non-property damage is physical or psychological pain; Spiritual damage in a broad sense refers to the damage to the spiritual activities of civil subjects. Tort infringes on the personal rights of citizens and legal persons, which leads to the destruction of citizens' psychological and spiritual activities and the spiritual activities of citizens and legal persons to safeguard their spiritual interests, and ultimately leads to mental pain and loss or impairment of spiritual interests. The so-called mental pain mainly refers to the physical and psychological pain suffered by citizens because of the violation of their personality rights, which leads to obstacles in citizens' spiritual activities or makes people feel angry, desperate, anxious, uneasy, sad and depressed. The loss or impairment of spiritual interests means that the activities of citizens and legal persons to safeguard their personal interests and identity interests are damaged, which leads to the damage of their personal interests and identity interests. (Discussion on issues related to the trial of mental damage compensation cases), Jiang Mengrong; Page 4), the author thinks that spiritual damage should be a kind of non-property damage, which refers to the loss or impairment of spiritual interests of civil subjects. But compared with property damage, "non-property damage" refers to damage without direct property content or property value, and its damage itself cannot be calculated by money. There are two views on "non-property damage". Broadly speaking, all kinds of damages except "property damage", including physical, psychological and abstract mental interests beyond the scope of body and mind, have two forms of expression: first, specific mental damage based on physical and psychological acceptability, including mental pain and physical pain in a positive sense; It also includes mental damage in a negative sense, that is, the loss of consciousness and mind of natural persons, such as being a vegetative person and a cerebral palsy patient because of physical infringement, being stimulated by tort, becoming a mental patient who completely loses civil capacity, etc. Second, the abstract form of mental damage, not based on physical and psychological acceptance, such as the reputation of legal persons or other organizations, that is, the abstract sense of mental interest damage. However, from the value concept of damages, the monetary compensation for "non-property damages" is usually called "compensation for mental damages". Therefore, when the civil rights and interests of natural persons and legal persons are infringed, "non-property damages" will occur. As a specific damage result, the narrow sense of "non-property damage" refers to mental pain, anxiety, despair, resentment, depression, sadness and lack of interest in life. Secondly, it also includes physical pain. Most victims suffer only mental pain when their reputation is violated, but those who are physically violated will also suffer physical pain according to their situation. Both spirit and body have no property value, and the pain suffered should belong to non-property damage. Because spirit and body are the basic elements of a natural person's personality and the physiological and psychological basis for a natural person to enjoy his personality rights and interests, the narrow sense of "non-property damage" is limited to the situation that a natural person's personality rights and interests are violated, resulting in mental pain and physical pain, which is called "mental damage" according to the general concept of society (On compensation for mental damage, contained in Contemporary Law, Wu Jianyi: No.2, 2000, p. 36). In judicial practice, the legislation and precedents of most countries and regions in the world adopt a narrow interpretation. From the standpoint of restrictionism, China also adopts a narrow sense, which limits the subject scope of mental damage of natural persons. However, in the extension of the concept of "mental damage", the traditional narrow sense has been revised. The mental damage of natural persons includes positive mental damage, that is, mental pain and physical pain, as well as negative mental damage, that is, perceptual loss and psychological loss, and the liability for compensation for mental damage and property damage, both of which belong to tort damage. (This article is selected from the author's thesis "On the Perfection of China's Mental Damage Compensation System") May 2007 15.