Risk and Strict Liability: The distinct examples of Germany, the US and Russia

Abstract

Enlightenment, natural law and economic liberalism engendered the grand concept of modern private law. Nearly simultaneously the ongoing process of industrial revolution paved the path into another modernity. Its new paradigms were technical risks, enterprises and insurance. Insurability of losses caused by risky commercial activities created the demand for ‘stricter’ forms of liability beyond fault. The paper presents three different answers to these challenges to civil responsibility. Germany is but a prominent example for the continental EU member states with its mixed system of social insurance, special legislation on strict liability and general fault liability. The US adheres to the negligence system with only marginal corrections. The liability law of the new Russian civil code combines the French and German legal legacy with the revolutionary ideas of the 1922 code leading to two general clauses of quasi-strict and strict liability.