Causal Relationship Between Theoretical Research. Tort Law

Apart from very special circumstances, there is no liability for the wrongdoer in tort law if no causation between the wrongful act and the damage. Studies on causation have reached very deep and ripe level in the two families of law. While nowadays it is still keeping backward in our country and can not keep up with the study and development of tort law as well as fails to satisfy the need of current practice of judicature. For this reason, it is not only very necessary but also extraordinary urgent to study causation in tort law deeply and efficiently.There are about 28000 characters in this article, which includes four parts as following:In the first part the author points out briefly the method of judgment of causation in philosophy can not be directly used to that of tort law, which is essentially a question of how to make out objectively and justly that whether the defendant is liable and to which extent the liability is.In part 2 the author introduces and comments the theories of causation in tort law in the Anglo-Saxon Law. Causation includes cause in fact and legal cause or proximate cause in the Anglo-Saxon Law. The former, which concerns whether the damage is caused by the tortfeasor in fact, is usually judged through the "but for" test and the "substantial factor" test. The latter aims to make out that whether the defendant is liable for the damage caused in fact by his or her act, and to which extent he or she should compensate for the damage of the plaintiff. Theories on proximate cause include directness, which is out of use, and foreseeability.In part 3 the author introduces and comments theories of causation in the Continental Law. Causation is divided into causation in the establishment of liability and causation in the extent of liability in the Continental Law. The former is the causation between the act and the violation of right; the latter is that between the violation of right and the damage. The condition theory, which is believed that it has a tendency to expand responsibility and this results in the abandonment of it, is the earliest one on causation in the Continental Law. Nowthe most prevalent one is the adequate cause theory, which contains the conditional relation, which is judged through the "but for" test, and the judgment of equivalency, which is to decide whether an act can always cause some damage in common circumstances. It is widely believed that the purpose of regulation theory, which advocates that whether the actor is reliable does not depend on the causation between the act and the damage, but on the purpose of regulation involved, is an amendment to the adequate cause theory, but not to deny it.The last part is some conclusions. In this part, after comparing the theories of causation in the two families of law, the author finds there are identification as well as difference between them. After that, the author introduces the necessary cause theory of our country and points out that this theory has great defects. On the base of refutation of the wrong criticism to the adequate cause theory and the purpose of regulation theory, the author proposes we can adopt these two theories, but not theories in the Anglo-Saxon Law or other new theories advocated by some scholars in our country.