Research On The Mental Damage Of General Personality Rights

As the report of the 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the changes in the main contradictions of society,people pay more attention to the pursuit of self-realization,and the pursuit of personal dignity and personal freedom.Therefore,for natural persons whose personal rights have been damaged,compensation for spiritual damages is used to maintain the dignity of human nature,which embodies the value concept of our country’s law that focuses on the protection of personal interests.Moreover,the compensation for spiritual damage will not damage the personal dignity of natural persons,but can demonstrate the humanistic care spirit of civil law and provide compensation and comfort to the infringed.However,due to the different definitions of the connotation and nature of "general personality rights" and the non-material nature of spiritual damage,there are still some problems in how to quantify the compensation for spiritual damage so as to provide a complete remedy for the damage to emerging personality interests: First,compensation for spiritual damage The range of quantitative factors is not clear.Due to the vague provisions on quantitative factors in the judicial interpretation,there is no clear compensation standard for mental damage that can be adapted to specific cases,resulting in a considerable number of victims being unable to make up for the damaged personality interests.Second,the judicial scale is not uniform.Courts in various places have different views on the identification of emerging rights and interests.For example,in the ruling on the right of chastity,the courts have different views on this right,and it is also unpredictable whether the people’s personality interests can obtain relief.The third is that the standards for identifying the constituent elements of "serious mental damage" stipulated in Article 1183,paragraph 1,of the "Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China"(hereinafter referred to as the "Civil Code")are not perfect."Serious" is an open concept of value,and there are two uncertainties in terms of semantic generality and normative purpose,so it cannot be directly included in individual case disputes.Fourth,the compensation model for "emerging personality interests" is not perfect.Due to the different degrees of recognition of emerging personality interests in judicial practice,the amount of spiritual damage compensation obtained by the infringed person for damage to these personality interests also varies,which has resulted in the phenomenon that the amount of spiritual damage compensation for emerging personality interests depends on the level of recognition in practice.This article studies the legislative evolution of spiritual damage compensation and analyzes the legislative purpose of legislators establishing the spiritual damage compensation system,so as to explore how the loss of spiritual interests is adjusted and protected after the general personality right is violated.At the same time,through the analysis of the judgment cases in 2021 and 2022 in which the victim obtained compensation for mental damage under the general personality rights disputes,the issue of compensation for mental damages in general personality rights disputes in judicial practice will be explored,and the protection of general personality rights will be improved.In this regard,this article will standardize the issue of compensation for mental damage to general personality rights from the following aspects: First,clarify the scope of quantitative factors for compensation for mental damage,so that judicial practice can have relatively specific reference standards and at the same time enrich the reasoning of judgments.Second,standardize the scale of judgments.Judges’ judgments should rely more on laws and legal interpretations,and there should be clear reasoning for their discretionary part,so that the public can affirmatively support the court’s judgments when they are convincing.Third,establish a reasonable identification standard.For the elements of "seriousness",it is necessary to use legal argumentation to determine its application.Finally,improve the "emerging personality interests" compensation model,adopt three levels of distinction and combine the above elements to classify and protect emerging personality interests.The "Civil Code" stipulates the general personality rights in a codified form,which reflects the people-centered value orientation of our country.Judicial practice should also pay attention to the protection of spiritual interest damage caused by general personality rights disputes,effectively protect the victim’s damaged personality interests,and promote the process of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics.