From May 1, 2004, people will be able to sue the person or unit in charge of public venues, like banks and hotels, if they are injured or suffer monetary loss owing to crime on the premises.

China's Supreme People's Court on Monday announced a batch of new judicial interpretations on personal injury compensation, which will come into force from next May.

Huang Songyou, vice-president of China's Supreme People's Court said with the rapid economic development, new types of personal injury cases have emerged. In recent years, murder and robbery cases have occurred in banks and hotels, partly because of lax security measures.

Previously, there was no legal basis for Chinese courts to judge public venues legally responsible.

The new judicial interpretation stipulates that if citizens are injured because of insufficient security measures at a public venue, the person or unit in charge has a responsibility to compensate victims.

"The new judicial interpretations on personal injury compensation fill a gap in the legislation on personal injury compensation in China," said Huang.

Previously, China had compensation rules only for victims of traffic accidents or electric shock.

The judicial interpretation also stipulates that education organizations, like kindergartens and schools have a duty to supervise the safety of children and students below the age of 18. If personal injury cases occur education authorities should compensate.

Another important part of the judicial interpretation, which was released on Monday, involves the amount of compensation for relatives of victims.

Compensation was previously calculated by multiplying by 10 the average urban expenditure

The new compensation figure is calculated by multiplying by 20 the per capita urban disposable income.

For example, Beijing's urban per capita consumption expenditure was 8,494 yuan (US$1,026) in 2000, so the victim's family could therefore obtain 84,940 yuan (US$10,262) as compensation. The city's urban per capita disposable income in the same year was 10,350 yuan (US$1,250), so under the new regulations the victim's family could receive 207,000 yuan (US$25,009) compensation.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2003)