Principles of European Tort Law – Proportional Liability
Courts have, traditionally, required the plaintiff to prove to the requisite standard of proof that causation exists. This project addresses what has, to date, been a modest reform toward permitting recovery based on a probability that causation exists, discounting the damages awarded by the probability of causation. The approach was endorsed in the European Group's Principles of European Tort Law of 2005. The central purpose of the Group's current inquiry is to employ a comparative methodology to better understand how different legal systems respond to causal uncertainty and to examine why, how and in what situations rules of proportional liability can promote the goals of tort law. In 2011, work continued on the project with further discussion at a meeting in Vienna in April, and consequent revision of the national reports. Draft comparative conclusions will be circulated to project participants in 2012, when the project is scheduled for completion. Proportional Liability has been on the agenda of several EGTL meetings. The project editors used their last meeting in Vienna in April 2011 and that in Geneva in October 2011 as a platform to consolidate their findings and draft rough conclusions. The editors have started to finalise the General Report and Conclusions.
It is anticipated that the study will be published as Proportional Liability: Analytical and Comparative Perspectives in 2012 under the editorship of Israel Gilead, Mike D Green and Bernhard A Koch. The book will follow as the next title in ECTIL and ETL’s Tort and Insurance Law Series.