A Comparative Study of Alternative Systems of Compensation for Physical Damages in Iranian and English Laws

In the legislator's point of view, compensation for physical damages is very important in a way that it has led to the creation of alternative compensation systems for physical damages so that the government itself shall compensate for such damages in cases where such damages are not paid by the offender or the insurer for any reason. In Iranian law, "Treasury" and "Physical damages compensation fund" are established as alternative compensation systems for physical damages, and in England, "Criminal injuries compensation authority" and "Motor insurers bureau" are responsible for this task with some differences. In Iran and England, alternative compensation systems for physical damages are comparable in regarding to the conditions and items for compensation, and in this article, these issues are examined comparatively through a descriptive-analytic method. As regards the conditions for compensation, in English law for compensating physical damages by alternative systems of compensation several conditions are predicted some of which are considered as the conditions for compensation in Iranian law; but most of these conditions are not conditions for compensation in law of Iran. Therefore, it is observed that the approach of Iranian law is an easier one for compensation of physical damages. In Iranian law, for determination of the responsibility of "treasury" in cases such as manslaughter or error of judges, mainly the attention is paid to the origin of the damage. In a similar vein, in cases where the "Physical damages compensation fund" is responsible for compensation of damages caused by traffic incidents, mostly this approach is followed. But English law, instead of considering the origin of damages, the attention is paid to the conditions and circumstances of the events.