Orientation for the amendments to the State Indemnity Law of China —in view of the demarcation between indemnity and compensation

Abstract

Traditionally, the understanding of the demarcation between indemnity and compensation starts from Rechtswidrigkeit (illegality). However, with the rise of Erfolgsunrecht theory  and the objective base of negligence, and with the convergence of the theoretic bases of compensation and indemnity, the demarcation between compensation and indemnity is vanishing. This phenomenon should have given rise to our retrospection on the traditional research on the methods of state indemnity, which, at the same time, would be of a big influence on the orientation of the amendments to our State Indemnity Law and how to adopt the legislation on administrative compensation. Hence, it is necessary to reconstruct the elements of state indemnity and administrative compensation.