This document outlines the different regimes of civil liability, including delictual liability and contractual liability, and their applications.
Extract
[...] Law that created a special regime of compensation for road accidents. Because the common law (article 1240 and following) provided for this case was not protective enough. There is also the special regime of liability for defective products that has been integrated into common law at articles 1245 and 1245-17, which has been the subject of a recent directive from the European Parliament and the Council dated October ? obligation for France to rework the applicable law to bring it into line with European law. [...]
[...] In French law, the same fact can lead to the implementation of both civil and penal liability. The author of blows and injuries can be pursued penal and held to indemnify on the civil plan the damaging consequences of his act to the victim. Civil liability and penal liability have, in principle, different functions: - Civil Liability : Repair a damage It can have a role of sanction if the repair by equivalent touches the assets of the author of the damage Preventive virtues through a condemnation pronounced to avoid the repetition of certain harmful behaviors Article 1254 of the Civil Code which consecrates a new civil sanction comes to blur the border between the two institutions - Criminal Liability : Sanction the author of the criminal offense to change our behavior Repair a disturbance to public order Modalities for rapprochement (procedural aspects) Civil Actions The victim of a crime can obtain compensation before the penal judge in the framework of a civil action. [...]
[...] The entry into law of article 1254 which consecrates a civil sanction comes to upset the classical functions of civil liability. The weight of compensation is largely shifted to insurance to cover the amount of damages and interest, especially if there is mandatory insurance. The emergence of guarantee funds and compensation funds allows the community to bear the repair of damages, especially when the amount of damage is insoluble or unknown. Retranscription of the prof : 1.The fault (classical foundation) - Principle of natural law set by Article 1240 of the Civil Code: whoever commits a fault must repair the damage. [...]
[...] Badinter Law of 1985 on road traffic accidents. Law of 2002 on Medical Liability. - Critiques: if generalized, it would paralyze all human activity (since every act creates a risk). 3. The theory of guarantee (Boris Starck, 1947) - Victim-centered approach. - Idea: the law opposes the right to act of the author of the damage and the right to security of the victim. - Consequence : Physical or material harm ? liability engaged automatically (without fault or risk to be proven). [...]
[...] - Extracontractual liability exists when a duty has been breached but this duty did not have a contractual source. Civil liability implies two conditions : Causal link between the behavior of the responsible person and the harm suffered by the victim (damage caused to others) o Allows to distinguish civil liability from guarantee Violation of an obligation that weighed on the responsible person (act contrary to the legal order). o Allows to distinguish contractual liability from delictual liability All responsibility assumes the existence of a prior obligation, but it does not always have the same source. [...]
