Full Description
The French law of torts or of extra-contractual liability is widely seen as exceptional. For long it was based on a mere five articles of the Civil Code of 1804, but on this foundation the courts and legal scholars have constructed liabilities for fault and strict liability of an extraordinary breadth and significance. While the rest of the general law of obligations (including contract) in the Civil Code was reformed in 2016 by executive ordonnance, this area was left aside, being the subject in 2017 of a proposal by the French Government for the legislative reform of the law of civil liability, a new legislative category to include both contractual and extra-contractual liability. This work considers important aspects of this developing area of French law in a series of essays by French lawyers and comparative lawyers working in French law and other civil law systems. In doing so, it provides insight into the doctrinal thinking and judgments of French lawyers as well as the possible directions in which this area of the law may be developed in the future.
Contents
1. Introduction
Jean-Sebastien Borghetti and Simon Whittaker
PART I
'CIVIL LIABILITY', CONTRACTUAL AND EXTRA-CONTRACTUAL
2. A Common Framework for Civil Liability?
Simon Whittaker
3. The Relationship between Contractual and Extra-Contractual Liability as between Parties to a Contract
Yves-Marie Laithier
4. Liability of Contracting Parties Towards Third Parties
Philippe Stoff el-Munck
PART II
'FAULT'
5. The Definition of Civil Fault
Marie Dugue
6. Crime, Breach of Legislative Duties and Fault
Matthew Dyson
PART III
LIABILITY WITHOUT FAULT
7. The Role of Liability without Fault
Jonas Knetsch
8. Fait d'autrui in Comparative Perspective
Birke Hacker
PART IV
'HARM'
9. Loss and its Compensation in the Proposed New French Regime of Extra-contractual Liability
Dorota Leczykiewicz
10. The Concepts of 'Harm' in the French and Italian Laws of Civil Liability
Pietro Sirena
11. Nuisance and Coming to the Nuisance: The Porous Boundary between Torts and Servitudes in England and France
Ciara Kennefick
PART V
CAUSATION
12. Liability for Alternative Causation and for the Loss of a Chance
Nuno Manuel Pinto Oliveira
13. 'Solidary' Liability and the Channelling of Liability
Carlos Gomez Liguerre
PART VI
DEFENCES
14. Defences to Tortious and Contractual Liability in French Law
Sandy Steel
15. Contracts Concerning Civil Liability
Zoe Jacquemin
PART VII
LIABILITY BEYOND DAMAGES
16. Comparative Reflections on Punishment in Tort Law
Marco Cappelletti
17. Unjustified Enrichment and Civil Liability
Melodie Combot
18. Injunctions Requiring the Cessation of Unlawful Action
Paula Giliker
PART VIII
BROAD THEMES
19. The Projet de Réforme du Code Civil Belge and the Reform of the French Civil Code: A Comparison of Selected Topics
Bernard Dubuisson
20. The Reform of Delict in the Civil Code and Liability in Administrative Law
John Bell
21. The Importance of Terminology in the Law of Civil Liability
Olivier Deshayes
22. Principles of Liability or a Law of Torts?
Jean-Sebastien Borghetti and Simon Whittaker
