Damages

About: Damages is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 9365 publications have been published within this topic receiving 89750 citations. The topic is also known as: compensation award.

Harmonization of Products Liability Law in the European Community

Abstract: I. INTRODUCTION A. The Need for Harmonization An essential element of the common market envisioned by the Treaty Establishing the European Community (EC Treaty)' is undistorted competition. The legal differences between the laws of the European Community's (EC's) Member States impose different economic burdens on their competing industries. For example, prior to harmonization of product liability laws in Member States, if the economic loss caused by a defective product was borne by the producer, as was the case in France, the industry was in a much less favorable economic situation than in Italy where the damage caused had to be borne by the unfortunate victim. According to the fault liability principle in Italy, the victim could not secure compensation. This was true not only if actual damages paid were considered, but also in the context in which total insurance premiums were taken into account. In Germany, the total amount of insurance premiums paid by the pharmaceutical industry after the introduction of the Pharmaceutical Act2 in 1976 was 55 million DM at the value prevailing at that time. By contrast, the Italian industry had nothing to pay. Unequal economic burdens lead to distortions of competition. Furthermore, variations in laws reflect major differences in approaches to consumer protection. Therefore a product user enjoys a much higher degree of protection if, in the event of damage, he can successfully bring an action against the producer, as was possible in France, but again he could not bring such an action in Italy. One of the aims of the EC is consumer protection without discrimination in all Member States. Consequently, the EC should have uniform rules in such an important area as product liability. It must be borne in mind that the EC is much more than merely one international organization among others, such as the Council of Europe, European Free Trade Association (EFTA), or the United Nations. The EC has the power and authority to create directly applicable law under a legal procedure which is similar to that of sovereign states. The EC Treaty created the European Court of Justice with the power and authority to take and enforce decisions on legal disputes. Harmonized law promotes the economic and political integration of its Member States, an example of which is the Product Liability Directive.3 B. Legal Bases: Articles 3(h), 100, and 100a of the EC Treaty One of the tasks of the EC as defined in Article 3(h) of the EC Treaty is the "approximation of the laws of the Member States to the extent required for the proper functioning of the common market." This provision has three components. First, the EC has competence only to approximate Member States' laws, not to unify them. Unification of laws aims to ensure identical legal provisions, whereas approximation of laws leaves the identity of the national law unaffected. Second, the phrase "to the extent required" does not allow the approximation of all national laws, even where such approximation may lie in the general interest. The task is limited to legal areas which are of relevance to the basis of the EC, namely the common market, and more precisely to the proper functioning of the EC. The common market, the third component of this provision, is defined by four freedomsfree circulation of goods, persons, services and capital-and the preservation of a system of undistorted competition.4 As a result of recent developments in the Treaty of Maastricht amendments, this definition may, in a larger context, also cover the need to protect consumers' interests and the environment. Again, the EC has the power and authority to introduce measures necessary for the approximation of legal areas only if the legal provisions are relevant to the establishment and functioning of the common market and only if the respective legal provisions have a direct impact on the common market. Article 3(h) defines the scope of harmonization measures. …

COVID-19: the critical balance between appropriate governmental restrictions and expected economic, psychological and social consequences in Italy. Are we going in the right direction?

Abstract: Since the declaration of COVID-19 pandemic infection by the World Health Organization, many governmental restrictions have been differently applied in the involved countries in order to contain the spread of the infection; Italy applied severe restrictive, public measures actually confining the entire population to an almost complete lockdown for several weeks; the restrictive quarantine can be considered controversial when excessively prolonged over time, due to many possible economic, psychologic and social consequences with a remarkable impact on the population. In this article we analyze possible collateral damages related to the prolonged quarantine.

Responsible Global Leadership

Abstract: As the world works to recover from the effects of the recent economic crisis and, according to some, the parallel crisis of management ethics (e.g. Fry and Slocum 2008; Waldman and Galvin 2008), business leaders have come under more scrutiny than ever before. This situation is partly due to the highly publicized corporate scandals and instances of management misconduct that eroded public faith and fuelled legislative reactions, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Scandals have brought to the forefront the recognition that leaders of organizations may be acting irresponsibly more often than previously thought (Bansal and Candola 2003; Brown and Trevino 2006; Schwartz and Carroll 2003). There is also a growing awareness that the costs of managerial misconduct are enormous, whether in terms of the loss of business, damaged corporate reputations, alienated customers, litigation costs, or damages paid (Arnott 2004; Ebersole 2007; Leatherwood and Spector 1991; Zolkos 2002).

Cases, Materials and Text on Consumer Law

Abstract: Setting the scene : consumer law - who is the consumer? - basic models of consumer law in the EU - legal techniques of consumer protection at the community level - consumers, horizontal effect and state liability for infringement of European consumer law; Commercial practices and adertisong : scope of European unfair commercial practices law - notion of fairness - misleading practices - misleading omission - language in commercial practises - comparative advertising - aggressive practices and sales promotion ; Consumer contract law : consumer protection and the evolution of European contract law - formation of contract - information duties ; Rights of withdrawal and standard terms : right of withdrawal - standard terms ; Sale of goods : EU legislation on consumer sales - contracts of sale - what are consumer goods? - goods must be in confirmity with the contract - burden of proof - persons liable - remedies under directive 99/44/EC - termination of the contract and claims for damages - consumer guaranties ; Financial services : financial services and consumer protection - consumer protection in the field of credit services - of investment services - of banking and payment services ; Product liability : origins and justifications of harmonisation - continued existence of national product liability regimes - products - liable persons - supply and putting into circulation - defect - damages ; Litigation, redress and enforcement : administrative enforcement and self-regulation - traditional individual redress - arbitration and mediation - collective redress - criminal law sanctions - state liability - individual cross-border enforcement