Abstract:

The concept of the law of damages in common law systems is dualistic: damages can be recovered for the losses incurred, including loss of profit, and for punishment of the wrongdoer. On the contrary the concept of the law of damages in civil law systems is purely monistic, at least if taken at face vale. Damages are strictly restricted to compensation. Punishment of the tortfeasor is under no circumstances a legitimate function of damages. Nevertheless during the last decade continental tort law has proven less static than one might initially think. It is still to be examined whether any recent developments have brought the two systems any closer to each other, so as at least to narrow that apparently unbridgeable gap.