ABSTRACT
Though surprising it may seem, given the importance that notion has today, civil law has done without using ‘responsibility’ for a long time. This word, which ‘was missing in Roman law’, only became the object of doctrinal elaboration in the 19th century, and only in a limited way. This may be due to the secondary character of responsibility. Responsibility, as etymology shows, is only an answer to something, like an echo (which is also said to ‘answer’) to a pre-existing reality which, in civil law, is an obligation. Civil liability is a legal answer to a prior obligation. Someone who has to answer for a civil obligation that falls to them is responsible under civil law.
€ (Routledge)
Jean-Baptiste Donnier, A perspective on civil responsibility in Marcel Morabito and Guillaume Tusseau eds, Regional Accountability and Executive Power in Europe, Routledge. Published April 2024.
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