Making European Tort Law: The Game and its Players
In the last decades, building a common European tort law has become a primary goal for many European institutions and research groups. On the one hand, EU institutions frequently highlight the need of simplifying the current diversity in European tort law, and try to achieve this goal injecting the European legal framework with (so far quite incoherent) pieces of legislation. On the other hand, many research groups aim to enhance the Europanization process through means that are much differentiated one to the other. Some of these groups (like the European Group on Tort Law and the Study Group on a European Civil Code) adopt a top-down approach, and seek to draft a ‘soft’ European tort law. Others (e.g. the ‘Ius Commune Casebook for a Common Law of Europe’ project and the ‘Common Core of European Private Law’ project) follow a bottom-up path, committed as they are to develop a better knowledge on tort law across the European law-users. Despite the number and the qualities of such enterprises, there is no agreement on what should be done nor on who should do it. It is from this debate that the paper takes off, aiming to offer an overview of the endeavours currently under way, of the different techniques and methodologies they adopt, and of the possible outcomes that they are likely to produce in the short run as well as in the long run.
Harmonization of Tort Law in Europe
The aim of the entry is to provide an overview of the projects regarding harmonization of European tort laws and the costs and benefits associated with them. To this purpose, the entry critically examines the arguments for and against tort law harmonization in Europe and investigates the assumptions and approaches underlying the many institutional and academic initiatives in the field. The entry tentatively draws some conclusions about the shortand long-term prospects of European tort law harmonization.
Unification of Tort Law: Wrongfulness
Introduction H. Koziol. Wrongfulness in the Italian Legal System F.D. Busnelli, G. Commande. Some Remarks on the Borderline between Contract and Tort Liability F.D. Busnelli, G. Commande. Wrongfulness in Belgian Tort Law H.A. Cousy. Wrongfulness under Greek Law K.D. Kerameus. Wrongfulness under Austrian Law H. Koziol. The Borderline Between Tort Liability and Contract H. Koziol. The Nature of the Interests Protected by Tort Law H. Koziol. Element of Wrongfulness in South African Law of Delict J. Neethling. Wrongfulness under English Tort Law W.V. Horton Rogers. Wrongfulness in the Dutch Context J. Spier. Le 'Wrongfulness' en Droit francais G. Viney. The Concept of 'Unlawfulness' -- Function and Relevance under Swiss Law P. Widmer. Conclusions H. Koziol.