The Reform of German Tort Law

Abstract: After a few futile attempts at reforming German law relating to compensation for tortious acts and breach of contract, a bill enacted on April 18, 2000 brought about some major changes. Amongst the key areas of reform are: the introduction of a general claim for non-pecuniary loss in cases of personal injury; the partial exclusion of value-added tax (VAT) in the calculation of material damages; an improvement of the position of children participating in public traffic; a “levelling” of the defences available to train operators as well as keepers of motorised vehicles under strict liability statutes; new rules relating to liabilty for pharmaceutical products; the raise of existing compensation caps (Haftungshöchstgrenzen) in the field of strict liability; and the introduction of liability of court-appointed experts who submit erroneous reports. Not only has the German legislator, by implementing this reform in August 2002, stayed abreast of changes in case law relating to compensation for tortious acts and breach of contract, but it has also fallen into line with general developments of the law in Europe, such as the improved protection of small children and the establishment of an express claim for non-pecuniary loss. However, the legal basis for a general right of personality has remained unchanged; in this context, a proposal by the Bundesrat to include such a right expressis verbis in the new § 847 BGB has not been adopted. The same holds true for the possibility of the principal to escape liability for his assistants, which is even more important against the background of other European jurisdictions. To lawyers with a common law background, who are accustomed to the gradual development of their case law, this history of German tort law offers an interesting perspective: it demonstrates the frictions involved in the interplay between legislative “maintainance” of an entire Code on the one hand, and development of the law by Courts on the other.