1 / 9

Principles of European Tort Law A Critical Examination

Principles of European Tort Law A Critical Examination. Ken Oliphant (Cardiff Law School) BIICL, 23 November 2005. 1. Why Principles of European Tort Law?. Full harmonisation (a European Civil Code) Other “hard” harmonisation “Soft” harmonisation Development of a distinct EC Tort Law

cooper-allison
Download Presentation

Principles of European Tort Law A Critical Examination

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Principles of European Tort LawA Critical Examination Ken Oliphant (Cardiff Law School) BIICL, 23 November 2005

  2. 1. Why Principles of European Tort Law? • Full harmonisation (a European Civil Code) • Other “hard” harmonisation • “Soft” harmonisation • Development of a distinct EC Tort Law • An exercise in comparative law

  3. 2. Structure of the Principles • The Basic Norm • The Three Bases of Liability • Fault • Abnormally dangerous activities (strict liability) • Auxiliaries (vicarious liability) • The Other General Conditions of Liability • Damage • Causation • Defences, remedies, etc.

  4. Cf. Structure of Study Group’s draft “A person who suffers legally relevant damage has a right to reparation from a person who caused the damage either intentionally or negligently or is otherwise accountable for the causation of the damage.”

  5. The Principles Fault Abnormally dangerous activities Auxiliaries French Civil Code Fault (art. 1382) Liability for things (art. 1384) Liability for others (art. 1384) Comparison with Other Codes:(i) Three-part structure

  6. French law of delict BGB § 823 (1) The Principles No specification of protected interests List of protected interests: covered/not A hierarchy of protected interests, with varying protection Comparison with Other Codes:(ii) Protected interests

  7. 3. The Flexible System • “Protection of pure economic interests… may [or may not] be more limited in scope.” • “an interest may [or may not] receive more extensive protection against intentional harm than in other cases…” • “The required standard of conduct… may [or may not] be adjusted when due to age… [etc.] the person cannot be expected to conform to it.”

  8. 4. Specific principles • Negligence • Intentional harm • Strict liability (abnormally dangerous activities) • Vicarious liability (auxiliaries) • Causation (inc. proportionate liability) • Defences acting to reduce liability • The general reduction clause

  9. 5. Concluding Thoughts: A Common Lawyer’s Perspective • The value of the enterprise • Opening the door to the civilian law of tort • (cf. Fairchild) • A common and neutral framework to make sense of other legal systems • The value of these principles • “The best” selected ahead of “the rest” • Reflecting accumulated practical experience • Specific proposals an aid to the further development of the common law

More Related