Research On The Issues Of Abetting And Helping Tort

Abetting and helping tort is one special type Tort. The meaning of abetting and helping tort, is that the defendant abet or help a person(or some persons)with mistake, and make the person carry out some behaviors, then cause the plaintiff's harm, so the defendant is liable for the plaintiff's harm. The record about abetting and helping tort can trace back to the times of Roma laws. Today, there are some similar legal rules in most countries. But the legal rules are not clear and definite enough, and abetting and helping torts happen frequently. So we should study them. We should draw lessons from legislations and legal precedents of other countries, and put "abetting and helping tort" into the system of Joint tort to study it.Except infringement act,damage,the causal relationship between infringement act and damage and fault, abetting and helping tort need some special conditions. First, abetting and helping tort need direct tort behavior, and the behavior is on the basis of the defendant's abetting or helping. Second, the result of direct tort behavior, and the result of abetting and helping must be same, such as the same object, the same right and the same causal relationship. Third, there are causal relationship between defendant's abetting or helping behaviors and the damage. Last, the defendants has subjective mistake, otherwise ,it can't make up abetting and helping tort.The abettor and helper do not do any direct tort behavior, on the contrary, they cause the harm result by abetting and helping other person. This is the distinguishing feature of abetting and helping tort. Abetting means guiding, or persuading, or instigating; and helping means supporting some people do something. By drawing lessons from the theory of criminal law, we think helping tort includes matter helping and spirit helping; and abetting tort can divide into five types: fanning, inveigling, threatening, suggesting and persuading.Abetting and helping tort has two nature: secondary nature and promoting nature, combining the concept of joint tort, and drawing lessons from other country's legislation, we think most abetting and helping tort belong to joint tort. So the abettor and helper should take responsibility for the result with other actors. Of course, he has the recovery right to other persons. In some cases, the abettor or the helper take responsibility for the result alone.