The Development of Traffic Liability

An examination of the legal responses across Western Europe to the problems of rail and road accidents from 1850–2000.

Wolfgang Ernst (Edited by)

9781107475755, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 31 July 2014

274 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.37 kg

Rail and road accidents are examples of new sources of harm, particularly personal injury, which arose almost simultaneously across Western Europe. The area of rail accidents provides early examples of a move away from fault liability in certain countries, but not in others. Although statutory regulation and extra-statutory standards form part of the context of liability, private law actions for damages and the plasticity of fault ideas remain central to the law's response. Insurance determines the relative importance of private law actions. Traffic liability is a field in which different solutions have been developed by different legal systems. For example, while France developed strict liability in the 1920s and 1930s and no-fault liability in 1985, English law has remained wedded to fault. The stability of each legal solution suggests that the background insurance position has been settled in the different countries, albeit in differing ways.

1. General introduction Wolfgang Ernst
2. The development of traffic liability in England and Wales Roderick Bagshaw
3. The development of traffic liability in France Anne Guégan-Lécuyer
4. The development of traffic liability in Germany Sebastian Lohsse
5. The development of traffic liability in the Netherlands Cees van Dam and Gerrit van Maanen
6. The development of traffic liability in Spain Isabel González Pacanowksa
7. The development of traffic liability in Sweden Sandra Friberg and Bill W. Dufwa
Main code provisions cited.

Subject Areas: Torts / Delicts [LNV], Legal history [LAZ], Comparative law [LAM]