When contemplating the evolution of the civil liability system in the European context, we should consider at least three different perspectives: (i) the establishment and application of rules governing civil liability laid down directly by the Treaty on the Functioning the European Union (TFEU ) for harm caused by its institutions or by its agents in the exercise of their functions (Art. 340); (ii) the establishment and application of rules regarding Member States’ liability for infringement of EU rules, in accordance with the general rules of the Treaty (Art. 4) and the principles developed by the Court of Justice; (iii) the establishment and application of rules deriving from European sources that define special type of torts.
The rules may be provided either by regulations or directives. However, rules, in these cases, are not always “complete”: in other words, neither the EU rules nor the principles developed by the Court of Justice always identify all the necessary components of the tortious act, namely the criterion of imputation (wilfulness, fault, risk), the interest harmed, the link of causation between the act and the harmful effect, the injury.
European Business Law Review