National Court Practice and European Tort Law
  1. Introduction
  2. Project Goals
  3. Publication
  4. Part Projects:
    1. Natural Causation
    2. Damage
I. Introduction

The Institute for European Tort Law supports the European Group on Tort Law in their efforts to draft "Principles of European Tort Law". This work of the European Group on Tort Law has already led to a series of well-received publications with Kluwer Law International publishers. The Group has already published the "Principles" in 2005 and is currently working on an update.

In the course of such work it became clear that one major groundwork both for researching the tort laws of today as well as for analyzing proposals for the future has yet to be completed: Even though no legal system, neither civil nor common law, can be properly assessed without a thorough analysis of the law in practice (in particular before the courts), an exhaustive comparative study of leading cases is not yet accessible, neither for academia nor for practice.

While there certainly are single country databases or other publications of court decisions, they do not give access to a comparative selection of recurring issues in the various legal systems. However, it were most desirable to research tort law from the perspective of real-life issues in a familiar analytical structure rather than within geographical limits of a multitude of separate national collections.

The requirements for such a compilation obviously go way beyond a mere collection of case texts which as such would not bring about any significant added value in that respect. Bringing together case law from as many jurisdictions as possible is only one preparatory step along the way - what is truly necessary and essential is a thorough examination of all such findings both from the perspective of national expertise as well as through the eyes of all-encompassing comparison, both horizontally as well as vertically.

For the purposes of a future harmonisation of tort law in Europe in particular, it is even more important to compare and examine any proposals for upholding or changing existing rules on the basis of such a thorough analysis of current case law. The European Group on Tort Law is not the only group of scholars working in this field. In particular, the so-called "Study Group on a European Civil Code" and its "Osnabrück Working Team on Torts" under its chairman, Prof. Christian von Bar (a former member of the European Group on Tort Law), is preparing a proposal for a future tort law codification as part of a projected European Civil Code. A comparison between the various drafts can also only be done on the basis of a comprehensive account of current practice.

The Institute on European Tort Law has therefore embarked on an extensive project which ultimately shall create a scientific Corpus Jurisprudentiae of European tort law that shall fill this substantial gap outlined before.

The project is directed by Prof. Bénédict Winiger (University of Geneva, Switzerland), Prof. Helmut Koziol (Institute for European Tort Law, Vienna, Austria, Prof. Bernhard A. Koch (University of Innsbruck, Austria), and Prof. Reinhard Zimmermann (Max-Planck-Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg, Germany).
 
II. Project goals

This project shall bring about the first part of a comprehensive comparative compilation of court decisions on all details of causation relevant in the tort laws of Europe. It is not limited to a mere bibliographic accumulation of case law as such, however: The entire body of cases collected shall be put together into an analytical structure based on real-life issues (though from a legal perspective), which is essential in order to avoid single-jurisdictional bias. As explained further below, the selection shall be guided by a multi-step procedure designed to bring together all tort-related aspects of causation throughout Europe. The cases will be commented both from a national as well as a comparative point of view, the various groups of issues will be preceded by introductory comments and overviews. Finally, there will also be extensive references to the most important proposals for the harmonisation of European tort law, which shall as a whole allow a comparison of the past, the present and the future of this core element of tort law both on a national as well as on a European level.

The project will therefore help tort law practitioners as well as researchers to identify specific issues of causation in an easily-accessible comparative perspective. For academics, the findings of this project will provide invaluable help for the vivid ongoing discussions in the course of the quest for a future harmonisation of European tort law.
 
III. Publication

In order to disseminate the results of this broad research endeavour, the Institute for European Tort Law has launched a new book series called "Digest of European Tort Law". The first volume on natural causation was already published.

IV. Part Projects

1. Natural Causation

The first topic tackled (and already completed) within the framework of this huge project was natural causation. It was published as the first volume of the "Digest of European Tort Law" series.

The publication is divided into 11 fundamental categories of “natural” causation. Within each category, the selected cases, solutions and comments are presented in the following manner: each category begins with a historical introduction, followed by the reports of 25 European jurisdictions, the decisions of the European Courts of Justice, the solutions of hypothetical cases according to the Principles of European Tort Law and finally by a comparative summary.
 
2. Damage

The second topic currently researched is damage. After an introductory meeting of all contributors, the first country reports have already been submitted.