Title: Thoughts about tort law and its compensation, deterrence and sanctioning functions

Authors: Francesca Benatti; Ruben Mendez Reategui

Addresses: Dipartimento di Dirtitto Privato e di Critica del Diritto – DPCD, Università degli Studi di Padova, Via VIII Febbraio, 2, 35122 Padova PD, Italy ' Universidad Autonoma de Chile, Av. Pedro de Valdivia 425, Providencia, Región Metropolitana, Chile; Universidad Tecnológica del Perú, Av. Arequipa 265, Cercado de Lima 15046, Peru

Abstract: This journal article examines the compensation, deterrence and sanctioning functions of torts law in light of modern legal, economic and scientific developments. Moreover, it refers to legal-economic reasoning and Comparative Law methodology, taking as examples of potential scenarios and cases from Latin American, European and Anglo-Saxon countries. The aim is to provide the reader with an exercise in critical reflection and to highlight how it is increasingly complex to distinguish the functions of torts law in practice. Based on the above, the authors concluded by presenting the consideration of the difficulty of discerning between the functions of torts as a valid reason to justify that the current systems aspire in the first order to the protection of the human person and not to forget their role as governing mechanism, that is, as ratio iuris.

Keywords: civil law; legal theory; tort law; comparative law; legal systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPL.2021.120432

International Journal of Private Law, 2021 Vol.10 No.1, pp.1 - 17

Received: 31 Aug 2020
Accepted: 25 Mar 2021
Published online: 19 Jan 2022 *