Walter van Gerven was formerly an Advocate General at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and has held chairs in law at the Universities of Louvain/Leuven and Maastricht. Jeremy Lever is the Senior Dean of All Souls College Oxford and a Bencher of Gray's Inn. Pierre Larouche is a Professor of Law at Tilburg University.

The authors do express the hope that the book will be used as teaching material in universities in order to familiarize future generations of lawyers with each others' legal systems and the inpact of European and international law. In my view, the book fully meets the objectives chosen by the authors. However, the use of this book should not be confined to the law school class rooms. It should find its way to present day legal practice as well, since the book contains a wealth of easily accessible high quality information on the major European tort law systems. In conclusion, this is a very important book of high quality. The authors have contributed greatly to European legal thought on tort law. Professor Dr Mark Wissink Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law February 2001 ...the book is beautifully presented,..., and the thousand or so pages of text so printed as to make the book very readable and so most comprehensible...a marvellous book...found the book very difficult to put down, it contains so much that is fascinating. The authors express the hope that the book will be used as teaching material in universities and other institutions throughout Europe. There can be no doubt that it will provide the most excellent material for that purpose, giving direct access to primary sources as well as providing, in the comparative overview which closes each section, a detached and scholarly assessment. But I very much hope that, in the United Kingdom at least, the legal profession, both the judges and the practising lawyers, will also take full advantage of the book to view their own law of torts in a comparative context and so to assist in its informed development. With books like this casebook,..., the cause of comparative law in this field has been immeasurably advanced, to the benefit of all legal systems in Europe - and indeed throughout the world Robert Goff International and Comparative Law Quarterly February 2001 Walter van Gerven, Jeremy Lever QC, and Pierre Larouche effectively collaborate to present the most complete version of the Casebook on Tort Law available to the general public today. Tort Law is a core addition for any professional or law school reference collection. The Review Editor Wisconsin Bookwatch June 2002

• Part 1 General topics and general approach of tort laws: meaning of tort law; functions of tort law - compensation and its different meanings, from loss-shifting to loss-spreading, deterrence of undesirable behaviour, avoidance of inefficient behaviour; tort and contract - concurrence, contractual chains; the approach of tort laws in general - the English approach, the French approach, the German approach, the Nordic approach, recent codifications; comparative overview. Part 2 Scope of protection: protection of life, physical integrity, health and freedom - German law, English law, French law; Belgian, Italian, Swedish and Dutch law, comparative overview; protection of personality rights and privacy - German law, French law, English law, Irish and Portuguese law, comparative overview; protection of ownership and property rights - English law, German law, French law, Italian law, comparative overview; protection of economic interests - English law, German law, French law, the law of the Nordic countries, comparative overview; protection of collective interests - French law, English and North American laws, German law, Dutch and Swedish law, comparative overview. Part 3 Liability for one's own conduct: acts and omissions - French law, German law, English law, Greek and Danish law, comparative overview; wrongfulness - basic notions, unlawfulness, culpability, grounds of justification, comparative overview; conduct of public authorities - English law, German law, French law, Belgian law, comparative overview. Part 4 Causation: the general approach - German law, English law, French law; establishment of causal link - operation of the conditio sine qua non ("but for") test, loss of a chance and proportional liability, burden of proof; issues relating to the sequence of events - predispositions of the plaintiff, subsequent events, wilful intervention of third party - pursuit and rescue cases; multiple tortfeasors and multiple causes - joint tortfeasors, plurality of established causes, uncertainty concerning the actual tortfeasor; comparative overview. Part 5 Liability for the conduct of others: liability for harm caused by employees - general approach, the concept of employee, limitations relating to the scope of employment; other regimes of liability for others; comparative overview. Part 6 Liability not based on conduct: general approach, German law, French law, English law, comparative overview; liability for accidents - road traffic accidents, other accidents, comparative overview; product liability - national laws, directive 85/374, implementation of directive 85/374, comparative overview; from liability between neighbours to environmental liability - liability regimes applicable between neighbours, liability for buildings, networks and nuclear installations, environmental liability, comparative overview. (Part Contents).