This is a two-year research project which is sponsored by Environmental Protection Administration, during the first year, we have accomplished at least the following four tasks. 1.We have collected and analyzed the judicial lawsuit cases and the administrative dispute disposal cases concerning the public nuisance such as noise or vibration caused by Mass Transportation vehicle including Taiwan High Speed Rail, Japanese Shinkansen Bullet Train and Korea Train Express. 2.We have spent a lot of time and efforts in studying various dispute disposal system of public nuisance in Taiwan, such as to bring a civil lawsuit to request compensation for damages, citizen complaints referral service, reconciliation, petition arbitration through village town and city arbitration committee to request compensation for damage, to request compensation according to the State Compensation Act, reconciliation, arbitration through administrative dispute settlement system of public nuisance . 3.We have explored the actual cases of the above-mentioned public nuisance dispute problems particularly focused on the point of dispute between the plaintiff residents along the railroad or around the airport and the defendant such as high speed rail corporation or government. We checked the lawsuits of Tokaido Shinkansen Bullet Train, Osaka International Airport, and Kyushu Shinkansen Bullet Train kagoshima Route. The courts describe the results of experiments concerning the impact of noise on sleep and point out that the noise disturbs the plaintiffs’ sleep and prevents them from recovering from fatigue and that noise of train or airplane disrupts the daily life of residents. It disturbs daily conversations, telephone conversations, and the reception of television and radio broadcasts. It is presumed that noise seriously affects intellectual exercise like reading, writing, and thinking. It lowers work productivity, especially during the evening hours, it disrupts family conversations and togetherness and creates adverse effects on family relations and associations with friends and relatives. The courts also find that the noise also effects education. It is presumed that even after the school building were sound-proofed(an action which reduced noise by 30dB), classroom work was still disturbed, and educational activities outside the buildings were exposed to the same noise as before. One also cannot deny that schoolchildren are disturbed when studying at home, and that students preparing for their entrance examinations have been seriously disadvantaged. Because the railroads, trains and the airport are clearly public facilities established and controlled by the government, therefore, the Civil Code art.709 and the State Compensation Act art.2(1) are applicable to these cases. We found therefore , that there have been defects in the establishment and management of the railroad and the airport and that the plaintiffs’ harms have been caused by these defects. The plaintiffs of the above-mentioned cases requested compensation in damages for past harms and attorney’s fee, and the requests were granted, but the injunction requested by Tokaido Shinkansen lawsuit and Osaka International Airport lawsuit were not granted owing to the public nature of those facilities. On October 30, 2007, we have held a conversazione by inviting the staffs of Environmental Protection Administration and Environmental Protection Bureau and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation to discuss the problems and resolutions of public nuisance for noise and vibration caused by Taiwan high speed rail. 4 .Through the analysis and comparison of the problems and disposal system of the above-mentioned public nuisance caused in Japan and Korea, we re-examine the present mechanism for managing the public nuisance dispute problem in Taiwan to see if those system in Japan and Korea can fit and resolve the public nuisance dispute problems caused by Taiwan high speed rail. It should be noted, finally, that the suggestions about the relevant legislative and administrative measures have been proposed in our final report.

Taiwan High Speed Rail,Noise,Vibration,Public Nuisance Dispute