Tort Law in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights

The goal of this study is to provide a general overview and thorough analysis of how the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) deals with tort law issues such as damage, causation, wrongfulness and fault, the protective purpose of rules, the compensation of pecuniary and non-pecuniary loss, non-compensatory remedies, reduction of damages due to contributory negligence and reduction clauses - namely when applying Art. 41 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

These issues will be examined on the basis of a comprehensive selection and detailed analysis of the Court's judgments.

The results of the above analysis will be compared with different national legal systems (Austria, Belgium, England and Wales, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania, Scandinavia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey), the EC Tort Law and the Principles of European Tort Law.

Methodological approaches to the tort law of the ECHR as well as the perspectives of human rights and tort law and public international law are addressed in three special reports (two of which are also translated in German). Concluding remarks are included.

Liability law is rapidly changing in quite a number of countries. This is due to various factors, which are interrelated to a large extent: changing case law and legislation as well as increased and still increasing technical and medical knowledge. As a result, various occupational diseases can, for example, be attributed to working conditions or personal injury to specific products. From the very moment that causation can be proven, the question arises of whether or not liability can be established – with far-reaching economic consequences for all parties involved.

The rise of phenomena such as mass torts, multiple causation, joint and several liability or various heads of damages (like ecological damage and several diseases and affections) rapidly increases the interest in tort law. In the context of the interrelation between liability and insurance, attention must be paid to the question of whether certain liabilities are still coverable or not, and, if they are, to what amounts.

The question of jurisdictions is of growing importance as is the question of whether a specific liability can be covered by insurance. In this context, one should bear in mind that the affordability of tort law also requires safe and sound insurers. The recent past has shown that there is a limit to their financial stability.