The legal term “tort”, which is derived from the Latin word delictum and translates as “offense”, “misconduct” or “guilt”, although not used by Russian law, is nevertheless widely used in jurisprudence.
What is a tort?
In a broad sense, a tort is any misconduct or an offense, and in a narrower sense, these are all those acts of people that contradict the norms specified in civil law. Moreover, fines are provided for such offenses - punishment in the form of liability. The tort from other offenses differs in that it is a deliberate act, the purpose of which is to cause this or that harm. The law also states that not every person has tort, for example, mentally ill and minors are not the subjects of offenses. By the way, there is a separate science dealing with offenses, which is called tortology.
Essence of tort
Crime and tort substantially coincide with each other, but not always. For example, some crimes are not subject to civil recovery, since there are no persons who need to pay damages (for example, as a result of a murder) or no one was harmed during the crime (in the case of an attempted crime). On the other hand, a number of tort cannot be considered a serious crime, which should be followed by punishment, however, such cases are subject to civil retribution. Based on this, it can be said that from the point of view of civil law, a tort is any unlawful act: a crime, misconduct or harming another's property.
History of tort law
In different periods of human history and depending on the legislation of a particular country, responsibility for tort (offenses) was different. At the initial stage of the development of tort law, his area coincided with the entire range of law, since those who committed both criminal and civil misconduct and offenses were punished in the same way: exclusively by fines in favor of the victim. Further development consists in the gradual allocation of criminal offenses that were subject to public punishment, and on the other hand, civil offenses for which a fine was not charged. And tort law has gradually become an intermediary area, standing between those and others.
Tort in Roman Law
In Roman law, the meaning of tort law was the most obvious. Here, for some criminal offenses, such as theft, robbery, etc., the collection procedure was as specified in tort law. There were cases when some crimes could not be purely criminal or civil, and then they were considered in terms of tort law. Nevertheless, during this period the general concept of “tort” in Roman law was not developed. This led to the fact that many relationships continued to remain without any protection.
In the most developed of the systems of slave law, there were two types of tort:
- public tort;
- private tort.
Public tort is an offense committed against state interests. The perpetrators were sentenced for this either to corporal punishment, up to the death penalty, or fines were imposed on them. Naturally, these amounts went to the state treasury. Private tort is an encroachment on private, not state interests. The punishment for this was either redress or a fine.
Types of tort in Roman law
1. Intentional resentment.
2. Damage to the limbs of the human body.
3. Damage to the internal organs of a person.
4. Insults.
5. Self-interest infringement on another's property, which can be regarded as theft of personal property, theft, embezzlement, misappropriation, etc.
6. Robbery.
7. Destruction and damage to personal property of individuals.
Quasidelicts
Obligations that give rise to liability or arise from circumstances and that do not fall within the definition of tort are called quasi-delicts. They can be of the following types:
1. Intentional, careless and improper conduct of a court case by a judge.
2. Throwing or pouring from the window something that could be harmful to those passing under the windows.
3. Incorrect or inconvenient arrangement of objects at some home, which can cause harm to citizens passing by.
4. Theft in a hotel or on a ship by servants, for which the owner of the establishment is responsible.
Types of Offenses
Delicts or offenses are distinguished by the following criteria:
- the degree of public harmfulness and the value of the object of abuse;
- nature of public harmfulness;
- method (non-violent or violent), the situation and time of unlawful action;
- the size and nature of the harm done,
- form and intensity of illegal actions,
- motivation for the offense;
- personality characteristics of the offender
- subjective factor and others.
Classification of tort
1. Administrative tort. This is a guilty, careless and deliberate action that encroaches on public or state order, freedom and human rights, on forms of ownership. For these offenses, legislation provides for administrative responsibility.
2. International tort. This is an action or inaction that was committed (not committed) by the subjects of international law, as a result of which international legal norms and principles or contractual obligations were violated. For this act, this subject is subject to international legal responsibility. It is called delinquent. It is believed that only deliberate internationally wrongful act can be considered an international tort, and it is also nothing more than an international crime.
3. Civil tort. This is an unintentional misconduct that leads to a violation of law and order, but does not constitute a corpus delicti. However, the perpetrators of this act are liable to civil liability. This may be a violation of the interests and legal rights of various entities in the field of their personal and property (non-property) relations.
Civil Offenses
Civil tort is any act or omission that is contrary to the rules of civil law, those unlawful acts that harm personal goods of a non-property nature (for example, honor, reputation, copyright or inventive rights, etc.) Civil wrongs include the following unlawful acts: invalid illegal transactions, unjustified enrichment, abuse of one’s rights, invalid civil transactions, violation of a contract and obligations, etc. Civil Torts subsection are on contractual and non-contractual. The first includes torts that are associated with the failure to fulfill obligations contained in contracts. The second includes acts that are aimed at harming the person and his property or legal entity.
The principle of general tort
Causing harm by one person to another is the basis for the obligation to compensate for this harm. This is the so-called principle of general tort. If it is established that the person is an injured party, and he or she or his property has suffered any harm, this person is exempted from the need to prove the guilt and wrongfulness of the actions of the causer, since their presence is presumed by law. However, if the alleged inflicter of harm is able to prove his innocence, then he will be released from liability. The content of the concept of “general tort” (this can be most clearly seen in the French legal code) includes general conditions regarding the types of liability for harm caused. Here is some of them:
- wine
- the unlawfulness of those actions committed by the causer of harm;
- causal link between the harm done and the offender’s behavior.
Conclusion
A tort is harm to a private person or his family property as a result of an indirect or direct offense, which entails compensation for harm. Moreover, a tort can be of two types: public (violation of state interests and rights) and private (violation of interests and rights of individuals).