1. Civil Liability
Civilliability is the obligation to repair and/or compensate others for damages resulting from our acts.
There are two types of civil liab il it y:
Contractual: if s when non-respect of contractual terms causes the other party damage. For example,
<when a company suffers internet cut-outs and loses customers because of this, it can sue the internet
pro vider based on the contract between them.
Tortuous (non-contractual): it can result from virtually anything we do; if you tell someone a lie and
this person acts based on what you said, it can potentially rai se your responsibility if damage happens
to that person. If you make improvements in your house but you caused the wall between you and
your neighbor to fall, you have a responsibility to repair this damage.
Civil liability has a very wide scope; it can apply to a variety of situations. It applies as soon as
damage occurs regardless of intent. It does not aim to repress but to repair.
Requirements for civil li ab ilit y:
1- Damage: it can of three types
Psychological: as invasion of privacy, defamation, causing emotional distress ....
Physical: inflicting bodily harm such as causing injuries
Material: causing damage to one's property
2- An act: there are three types of acts that can cause damage
Personal act: it can a positive act or an omission, voluntary or involuntary
Acts of the things owned: the owner of an object (or animal or any other thing for that matter) is
responsible for the damage caused by that object.
Acts of others: for example a father is responsible for the acts of his minor children, the State is
responsible for the acts of his agents
3- Causality link: A causallink must exist between the act and the damage
Cri minai Liability
Criminalliability is the obligation to answer for offenses or infractions to the law; it aims to punish
infringements of public order or the law.
Crirninalliability is the sanction of behaviors considered as violating prohibition of the law. It does
not repair the damage caused to the victim.
Crirninalliability applies more restrictively than civilliability because of its repressive character
leading to physical punishment.
Consequently, by applying the principle of legality of penalties, criminalliability is only raised when
there a text (law) criminalizing a specifie conduct.