Week 1
Lecture
Tort Law/Non-contractual liability
What is Contract and Tort Law about?
- Contracts
- Torts
- Property
Solve cases by applying:
1. Case law
2. Draft Common Frames of Reference (DCFR)
Exam:
- Separate questions about DCFR and case law
Private law is mainly national law
- Predominantly national law
- Exceptions:
1. Treaties
a. Convention on the International Sale of Goods
2. Directives
3. Regulations
Two systems of private law:
1. Civil law (no duty of care available)
2. Common law (fundamental differences; have duty of care)
DCFR & Restatements
- Where local/national laws differ the need for an overview or synthesis arises
● USA: Restatements by American Law Institute
○ Used in American law schools
● EU: Draft Common France of Reference
,What is tort law about?
● Tort = wrong
● Key question(s):
○ Do you have to (legally) pay compensation for damage you caused to someone
else?
○ Are you liable?
Examples:
- Injury caused by (traffic) accidents
- Injury caused by faulty products
- Exploding Coca Cola bottles
- Crimes, human rights violations
- Nuisance
- Loud noise
- Violation of privacy; injury to reputation
- Economic loss caused by unfair competition, patent infringement
- Injury caused by physical abuse, stalking
● Tort law has a wide scope of application: every-day issues are usually covered by this
Types of losses
Economic losses Non-economic losses
Medical expenses Pain
Earning capacity Suffering
Categories of torts
- Intentional torts
- Example: crimes
- Art. VI-3:101 DCFR
- Negligence (focus)
- Art. VI.-3:102 DCFR
- Other accountabilities
Types of negligence (carelessness)
1. Violation of statutory law
, a. Example: traffic laws
2. Unwritten rules of social conduct (focus)
Factors to consider:
- Other (external) contributions to damage
- Causality
‘Unwritten’ negligence
● art. VI.-3:102 (b) DCFR
● Violation of unwritten rules of social behaviour:
○ Conduct which does not amount to such case as could be expected from a
reasonably careful person in the circumstances of the case
- Decided not to establish a statutory provision for each situation; instead compare
conduct to reasonably careful person standard
- Criticism: people argued it violated the principle of legality
- Certainty can be found in court decisions/case law, not in statutes
Dangerous situations: what is negligent?
● Main question: did someone act negligently?
- Snow-covered steps
● What level of care is required?
● Is the municipality liable?
○ Yes, because…
■ Owner (municipality) has control over the state + quality of the
steps
■ Steps are open to the public
○ Counter-arguments
■ People can pay attention and notice the snowy steps
■ Snowy conditions are outside of the municipality’s control
● Did they act negligently or not?
○ Yes, however not fully as some of the fault can be blamed on the
individual (based on counter-arguments)
● Criteria:
○ Foreseeable harm/damage
- Lettuce leaf
● Is the shopkeeper liable on the basis of either breach of contract or tort?
, ○ Shop was liable, but victim only gets ⅓ of compensation due to
contributory negligence of victim
○ Court’s reasoning for judgement:
■ Shop must prove that the leaf has been on the floor for only short
period of time
● In order to prove the part of the floor was recently
checked and secured
■ Customer must take care, especially in the vegetable/fruit
department busy as it was a Friday afternoon
Criteria for negligence - What is negligence?
● Weighing factors:
1. Nature + extent of potential loss = L
a. Purely financial, physical injury, etc.
2. Probability of loss = P
3. Costs of preventive measures = C
a. These costs are usually less than having to compensate for the damage
caused as a result of a lack of safety measures
● Negligence is when L x P > C
Negligence: liability for intentional tort of somebody else
● Can you be liable if somebody else acted negligently?
- L’Olympique v. Fuster
● What level of care is required?
● Is the football club liable?
○ Yes, because…
■ Organizer of the event were under a duty to take adequate
security measures
■ There were 33.000 spectators
■ There were strong indications of violent incidents
■ Supporters of both teams were not seated at safe distance from
each other
■ No inspection to prevent spectators from carrying objects which
could cause injury
○ Counter-argument
■ There were many people; even if they had inspected there was
still a chance that some items would be missed
Lecture
Tort Law/Non-contractual liability
What is Contract and Tort Law about?
- Contracts
- Torts
- Property
Solve cases by applying:
1. Case law
2. Draft Common Frames of Reference (DCFR)
Exam:
- Separate questions about DCFR and case law
Private law is mainly national law
- Predominantly national law
- Exceptions:
1. Treaties
a. Convention on the International Sale of Goods
2. Directives
3. Regulations
Two systems of private law:
1. Civil law (no duty of care available)
2. Common law (fundamental differences; have duty of care)
DCFR & Restatements
- Where local/national laws differ the need for an overview or synthesis arises
● USA: Restatements by American Law Institute
○ Used in American law schools
● EU: Draft Common France of Reference
,What is tort law about?
● Tort = wrong
● Key question(s):
○ Do you have to (legally) pay compensation for damage you caused to someone
else?
○ Are you liable?
Examples:
- Injury caused by (traffic) accidents
- Injury caused by faulty products
- Exploding Coca Cola bottles
- Crimes, human rights violations
- Nuisance
- Loud noise
- Violation of privacy; injury to reputation
- Economic loss caused by unfair competition, patent infringement
- Injury caused by physical abuse, stalking
● Tort law has a wide scope of application: every-day issues are usually covered by this
Types of losses
Economic losses Non-economic losses
Medical expenses Pain
Earning capacity Suffering
Categories of torts
- Intentional torts
- Example: crimes
- Art. VI-3:101 DCFR
- Negligence (focus)
- Art. VI.-3:102 DCFR
- Other accountabilities
Types of negligence (carelessness)
1. Violation of statutory law
, a. Example: traffic laws
2. Unwritten rules of social conduct (focus)
Factors to consider:
- Other (external) contributions to damage
- Causality
‘Unwritten’ negligence
● art. VI.-3:102 (b) DCFR
● Violation of unwritten rules of social behaviour:
○ Conduct which does not amount to such case as could be expected from a
reasonably careful person in the circumstances of the case
- Decided not to establish a statutory provision for each situation; instead compare
conduct to reasonably careful person standard
- Criticism: people argued it violated the principle of legality
- Certainty can be found in court decisions/case law, not in statutes
Dangerous situations: what is negligent?
● Main question: did someone act negligently?
- Snow-covered steps
● What level of care is required?
● Is the municipality liable?
○ Yes, because…
■ Owner (municipality) has control over the state + quality of the
steps
■ Steps are open to the public
○ Counter-arguments
■ People can pay attention and notice the snowy steps
■ Snowy conditions are outside of the municipality’s control
● Did they act negligently or not?
○ Yes, however not fully as some of the fault can be blamed on the
individual (based on counter-arguments)
● Criteria:
○ Foreseeable harm/damage
- Lettuce leaf
● Is the shopkeeper liable on the basis of either breach of contract or tort?
, ○ Shop was liable, but victim only gets ⅓ of compensation due to
contributory negligence of victim
○ Court’s reasoning for judgement:
■ Shop must prove that the leaf has been on the floor for only short
period of time
● In order to prove the part of the floor was recently
checked and secured
■ Customer must take care, especially in the vegetable/fruit
department busy as it was a Friday afternoon
Criteria for negligence - What is negligence?
● Weighing factors:
1. Nature + extent of potential loss = L
a. Purely financial, physical injury, etc.
2. Probability of loss = P
3. Costs of preventive measures = C
a. These costs are usually less than having to compensate for the damage
caused as a result of a lack of safety measures
● Negligence is when L x P > C
Negligence: liability for intentional tort of somebody else
● Can you be liable if somebody else acted negligently?
- L’Olympique v. Fuster
● What level of care is required?
● Is the football club liable?
○ Yes, because…
■ Organizer of the event were under a duty to take adequate
security measures
■ There were 33.000 spectators
■ There were strong indications of violent incidents
■ Supporters of both teams were not seated at safe distance from
each other
■ No inspection to prevent spectators from carrying objects which
could cause injury
○ Counter-argument
■ There were many people; even if they had inspected there was
still a chance that some items would be missed
