Liability For Pure Economic Loss

How far can tort liability expand without imposing excessive burdens upon individual activity? This comprehensive 2003 study of pure economic loss in Europe uses a fact-based comparative method and research into the laws of thirteen European countries. Includes a historical and analytical introduction to economic loss.

"This is the first book devoted solely to examining Canadian case authorities and the unique problems that arise from them. It also introduces a new innovative macro-organizational structure for understanding pure economic loss. In doing so, the book brings new insight, explanations, and ways of looking at this complicated subject area."--Publisher.

Pure economic loss is one of the most-discussed problems in the fields of tort and contract. This book takes a comparative approach to the subject, exploring the principles, policies and rules governing tortious liability for pure economic loss in a number of countries across the world including the USA, Canada, Japan, South Africa and Denmark.

This article describes and evaluates from a comparative perspective the approach to tort liability for pure economic loss adopted in the Restatement (Third) Torts: Liability for Economic Harm. The analysis highlights three fundamental issues: whether a claim in tort can arise concurrently with a claim in contract; whether claims for professional negligence merit special treatment and, if so, how; and whether claims relating to negligent misrepresentation should be subject to the same rules as apply to negligence generally. Consideration of how these issues are addressed in English, French, and German law suggests that debates in the United States might usefully be informed by European experience.

Main focus on recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada, in comparison with those of the Australian High Court.

The article discusses five distinct categories of claim for pure economic loss in negligence: misrepresentation, relational loss, defective buildings, discretionary public benefits and the performance of services. It concentrates on a criticism of recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada, with brief and less critical reference to comparable decisions of the High Court of Australia. The article also sheds some light on the general question of how a court might best decide whether or not to recognize a novel duty of care.

This contains the views and opinions of scholars from all over the world on the policies and trends in liability for damage to property and economic loss. Topics include the debate on economics and law , the relationship between contract and tort law, characterization and the context and problems of economic loss in American tort law, and more.

Over the years, the problem of pure economic loss together with its presumptive non-recovery 'bright line' rule have continued to lead discussions on the boundaries of tort law, which is never closed. Perhaps nowhere else in the law of tort has there been such diversity of opinion than in the recoverability question of pure economic loss. Arguably, the most discussed and expanding rule in the realm of tort law today. This study, however, examines the notion of economic loss across two different systems, the tort laws of United States and Spain. It begins with how pure economic loss relates to contract. Why physical loss does enjoy more protection than economic loss? Why was there divergence of treatment for economic loss within and across systems? The courts' reluctance to allow recovery not linked with physical loss or injury for the fear that such admission would open the door to mass litigation, which might very well overwhelm the courts. The mutual concerns of both common and civil law courts to keep liability exposure on check and the use of duty in case of common law and causation for civil law to achieve that. Attention is also given to the uncertainty regarding the prerequisite for compensation of economic loss and the lack of consistent framework in determining recoverability. The study concludes with an opinion on the ongoing debate over the propriety or otherwise of recovery expansion.

Today, pure economic loss is probably one of the main problems in expanding tort law. In some countries, it is associated with uncontrollable and unforeseeable floods of claims to which there may be no end. In this book, leading authors shed light on the subject. An attempt is made to include a possible road towards a common European denominator on compensation for pure economic loss. The perspectives presented in this book are manifold. Contributions on the following topics are included: pure economic loss under specific national legal systems and from several comparative law perspectives, legal and economic analyses, tortious liability of banks and auditors, and an outlook on further developments.