Comparative Tort Law

Thomas KADNER GRAZIANO is Professor of Law at the University of Geneva and visiting professor at KU Leuven. He holds a doctoral degree from Goethe-University Frankfurt, an LLM degree from Harvard Law School, and a professorial degree from Humboldt-University of Berlin. He was a faculty member of the DUKE-Geneva Institute in Transnational Law (2004, 2010) and has held visiting professorships, teaching comparative law at the Universities of Potsdam (1997), Poitiers (2006), Florida (1996, 2006–10), Exeter (2007–08), Kaunas (2009, 2013, 2014), Vilnius (2014), Lausanne (2015), KU Leuven (since 2015), and Renmin (People’s) University of China (Beijing and Suzhou, 2016), and has taught seminars in comparative law at the Universities of Johannesburg (2015) and Luxembourg (since 2016). He is Fellow of the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law (ECTIL), Vienna, and has acted as an expert on comparative law and comparative private international law, including for the European Parliament and in international proceedings before the UN Security Council’s Compensation Commission.

"This is the first true student reader on comparative tort law bringing together excerpts from court practice and legislation in a way that lets students experience comparative law in action. It leaves room for one’s own opinion, which is crucial for comparative legal education." Bernhard A. Koch, Univ.-Prof. Dr. LL.M., Universität Innsbruck"Thomas Kadner Graziano’s new book applies a broad comparative approach that prepares students for the challenges of the modern world. Written in English, it can be used in classrooms around the world. The book provides students with an excellent opportunity to develop their skills as comparative lawyers."Reinhard Zimmermann, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult., Direktor am Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht, Hamburg"Worldwide comparative law is of increasing importance. Therefore, Kadner Graziano’s idea to provide materials for teachers and students for a case oriented approach to comparative law methodology, taking as an example tort law, is highly welcome. It will greatly benefit every user to go through this book thoroughly."Helmut Koziol, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c., founding President of the European Center of Tort and Insurance Law, Vienna

• Preface Acknowledgements Translations List of abbreviations PART A Introduction Chapter 1 Tort law in the 21st century – the purpose of this book Chapter 2 A case-oriented and multilateral approach to the teaching, studying, and learning of comparative law: the approach used in this book Chapter 3 Is it legitimate and beneficial for judges to compare? Chapter 4 The Principles of European Tort Law – a brief introduction and analysis PART B Case studies Chapter 5 Conditions and limits of extra-contractual liability – cable cases Chapter 6 Fault-based liability and the required standard of care: the case of damage caused by minors Chapter 7 Fault-based liability in action: challenges of establishing fault (and alternative regimes) – the example of sports accidents Chapter 8 Liability without fault – a ruptured water main: casum sentit dominus? Chapter 9 Most common cases: traffic accidents Chapter 10 Liability in cases of uncertain causation – "all or nothing" or partial compensation in relation to the probability of causation? Chapter 11 Damage suffered by secondary victims: the case of psychiatric injury, "nervous shock", or "post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)" following the loss or severe injury of a loved one Chapter 12 Damage suffered by secondary victims: damages for pure emotional harm following the loss or severe injury of a loved one Chapter 13 Liability for others – the case of liability of parents for damage caused by their children Chapter 14 Pure economic loss: the case of liability for wrongful information and advice Chapter 15 Protection of privacy and the purposes of tort law Chapter 16 Damage to public goods: the case of damage to the environment, pure ecological damage in particular Chapter 17 Comparative tort litigation – an introduction, with a focus on the costs of lawsuits Chapter 18 Cross-border torts: coordinating legal diversity through Private International Law – an introduction Chapter 19 Epilogue: tort law in context – and potential alternatives to tort liability Table of codal and statutory provisions Index