6.8 Some Conclusions: Who Is My Neighbor in Law?
In the introduction, it was stated that tort law is about finding the criteria to
determine whether a loss can be shifted from the victim to the wrongdoer. To
whom do we have legal responsibilities and to what extent? But tort law deals not
only with situations where the wrongdoer is personally held liable for his own
(wrongful) behavior. It deals also with questions such as whether the parents of
stone-throwing boys can be held responsible for the wrongful behavior of their
sons. In the second half of this chapter, an illustration was given of damage that was
not directly connected to someone’s wrongful behavior but resulted from dangerous
objects like railways and cars in traffic. We have seen that as early as in the
beginning of the nineteenth century, a stricter form of liability was developed, by
using the technique of shifting the burden of proof from the victim to the railroad
company. Later on, a more material type of strict liability was introduced, when the
liability is shifted towards somebody else without even the possibility to prove the
absence of fault.
The most extreme examples of strict liability can be found in French law. Its
system of traffic liability provides for an absolute liability. In accidents in which a
car is involved, the owner is always liable without having any real defense. This
comes close to a system of social security. Car owners are obligated to take care of
their fellow traffic participants as if they were their neighbors. Like the Good
Samaritan, they cannot look the other way when a pedestrian is injured. There is
not only a moral obligation to take care of strangers in need, but it has also become a
legal obligation to compensate if the stranger was injured by a modern car.
Recommended Literature
Deakin SF, Johnston A, Markesinis BS (2012) Markesinis and Deakin’s tort law, 7th edn.
Clarendon, Oxford
Markesinis BS, Unberath H (eds) (2002) The German law of torts. Hart, Oxford
Smits JM (2000) The good samaritan in European private law. Kluwer, Deventer
Van Dam C (2013) European tort law, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Van Gerven W, Lever WJ, Larouche P (eds) (2001) Tort law, common law of Europe casebooks
series. Hart, Oxford
Youngs R (2014) English, French and German comparative law, 3rd edn. Routledge, London
120 G.E. van Maanen and J. Hage