Rechtliche Bewältigung der Haftung für Massenschäden im Deutschen Recht

Abstract

The law on civil liability and civil procedure in force in Germany are in general designed to deal with the compensation of individual harm, and may not deal so adequately with mass torts. Because of this in many areas a corresponding reform of or addition to the legal rules is required. The law on civil liability is primarily called upon to provide the basis for an appropriate compensation for damage. A failure to satisfy this function should not therefore be accepted. Nor is this fundamental mission affected by the fact that the compensation for damage, which is determined by the rules of civil liability, in many areas intersects with systems for collective insurance and collecting measures for dealing with damage, such as for example liability, sickness and social insurance; for even in these cases as soon as one deals with the subrogated claim against the defendant, reference is made to the normal rules of civil liability, so that these must contain rules appropriate to mass torts.