TITLE:
Unlawfulness in Western European Tort Law
AUTHORS:
Martín García-Ripoll
KEYWORDS:
Tort Law, Unlawfulness, Wrongfulness, Fault, Liability of Minors and Mentally Ill Persons
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.2 No.6,
June
15,
2015
ABSTRACT:
In the wake of the German Civil Code (BGB), the codes of different
countries of Western Europe include an apparently distorting requisite for an
action in tort, which is the unlawfulness. This paper aims to clarify its
original meaning and the possibilities of accepting it in jurisdictions where
its law does not require expressly that
element, including those of Common Law. Before moving directly into the problem, a clarification seems
necessary for Common Law scholars, for this paper is focused on a
scientific European issue. In Common Law, it is debatable whether there is a
general tort law or different torts, but no
matter the opinion of the different authors is , each tort is supposed
to have its own requisites. In contrast, in Continental Law, the trend is to
establish common requisites for all torts (although it is distinguished between
“normal” and strict liability), and to insert subsequently nuances when dealing
with special group of cases. This paper deals with one of these general
elements of an action in tort in some codified systems: the unlawfulness, but
without rejecting its usefulness in Common Law jurisdictions.