Normative Construction and Value Orientation of Mental Damage Compensation System in Civil Code

Compensation for mental damage shall not damage the personal dignity of natural persons. Conversely, it can highlight the humanistic care spirit of Civil Code. The basic function of the compensation system is to compensate and comfort the infringed. The function of mental damage compensation system essentially determines the specificity of the claim for mental damage compensation, and also determines the eligibility of the indirect infringed as an independent subject of the claim for it. While affirming that breach of contract can lead to mental damage compensation, the system clearly includes the situation of “infringing on a specific object of the personal significance of a natural person” into the scope of mental damage compensation. It highlights the characteristics of Chinese, the times and practice on the basis of foreign law. Meanwhile, it is a masterpiece of relevant civil legislation, judicial practice and theoretical research in the Pre-Civil Code era. From the perspective of the cohesion and coherence of departmental laws, the position that victims in criminal cases have no right to claim mental damage compensation has insufficient legal basis. Also, it’s against the rules of responsibility established by the Civil Code. It should be completely denied through the method of legal hermeneutics.