Legal experts in China have called for the amendment of the
nine-year-old Law on State Compensation to guarantee that victims
of state infringement actions will be reimbursed for losses.
"The standards set for compensation are too low and are basically
compensative instead of punitive," said Ma Huaide, law professor
with the Beijing-based China University of Political Science and
Law.
The current law, adopted in 1994 and taking effect the following
year, only compensates direct losses, including medical fees and
loss of earnings during a certain period of time for victims.
When a death occurs due to the illegal activities of a state
department, the victim can be compensated a maximum of 20 times the
annual average state salary.
Insiders told China Daily that law-makers were not sure how
much money would be needed for the payment of compensation claims a
decade ago. They worried the expense would be too much of a burden
on national coffers.
Ma
said it is now widely accepted that "direct losses" should include
all unavoidable losses of forecast profits.
Yuan Shuhong, professor with the National School of Administration,
said it is important the law has clauses that judicial departments,
such as the police, should pay punitive compensation for losses
caused by their intentional or major malfeasance.
"State compensation should on the one hand provide a judicial
remedy to victims so their rights are protected and on the other
hand stop administrative and law enforcement departments from
abusing power and engaging in illegal actions," said Yuan.
Statistics from the Supreme People's Court reveal courts across the
country handled nearly 9,400 cases of state compensation in the
five years between 1996 and 2002. Victims' 36 percent of these
cases won compensation.
"Actually an infringement by a state department leaves deeper and
more lasting damage on the minds of victims than infringements by
any individual," Ma said, calling for the inclusion of compensation
for psychological damage into the law.
It
is only in recent years that Chinese legislators and courts have
started to consider compensation for mental damage. The Supreme
People's Court issued a judicial interpretation in 2001, saying
courts can support victims in demanding money for mental
damage.
But Ma said a law for compensation cases that are divided into two
categories of criminal and administrative still did not exist.
According to the current law, mental damage can only be compensated
through apology, restoration of reputation and clearing up of
negative effects, noted Ma.
The issue of mental damage in state compensation cases was hotly
debated two years ago when Ma Dandan, a beauty salon worker in
Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, was illegally interrogated for
23 hours and then wrongly detained for 15 days on charges of
prostitution. She asked for compensation of 5 million yuan
(US$600,000). She was turned down by a local court and received a
tiny compensation of only 74.66 yuan (US$9).
"There is an obvious increase in the awareness of this channel of
judicial remedy among the public," noted Ma. "But if the victims do
not get the compensation to which they are entitled, their
confidence in the system will be harmed."
(China Daily June 23, 2003)