Study On The State Compensation Of The Damages Inflicted By Public Utilities

The problem of state compensation system of the damages inflicted by public utilities is a subject which is of both theoretical and practical significance, but Chinese academia seldom studies this subject. As the government enhances its function of public service, more and more compensation suits appear which result from the tort by the public utility facilities. That the nature of such suits is administrative compensation or civil compensation is hard to distinguish, which causes wide debate in the administrative academia.This thesis puts forward that the compensation of the damages inflicted by public utilities is administrative compensation, and they should fall under the regulation of State Compensation Act. It focuses on the study of the theoretical basis and gives some practical suggestions. Using the method of analysis, comparison and case study, this thesis discusses several fundamental problems about why the compensation of the damages inflicted by public utilities should be included by state compensation. This thesis totals to about 40,000 words and consists of four parts.In the first part, by analyzing two typical state compensation cases, this thesis states that the nature of the damages inflicted by public utilities is administrative omission and accordingly the compensation of such damages should be treated as state compensation liability for tort by administrative omission. Afterwards, it introduces present legislation in China about the compensation of the damages inflicted by public utilities and proposes the idea of including it into state compensation.The second part discusses the necessity of including the compensation of the damages inflicted by public utilities into state compensation from three aspects. It proceeds from the insufficiency of considering the liability for the damages inflicted by public utilities as liability for civil damage and expounds the realistic foundation and system foundation of including the compensation of the damages inflicted by publicutilities into state compensation.By introducing various theoretical basis and basing on the relationship between citizen and state, the third part proves that the theoretical basis is the theory of public service. Thereafter, the author demonstrates several theories on the doctrine of liability fixation of state compensation in China, and on such basis concludes that the doctrine of liability fixation of the damages inflicted by public utilities should be the principle of malfeasance liability.The last part illustrates four requisites of the state compensation of the damages inflicted by public utilities. Firstly, the damages should be inflicted by public utilities. Secondly, the installation or administration of public utilities should have some defects. Thirdly, there must exist real damages on citizens' body or property rights. Finally, there must be causality between the damage and the defect.