The Modernization of Civil Law Institutions: Civil Liability, Property and Contract

This work analyzes the treatment and contributions of Latin American law to specific problems that are the object of continuous discussion in the doctrine and jurisprudence.

To this end, the authors identify as principal issues of concerns: strict liability for hazardous activities in Colombian jurisprudence and in European tort law, the method of property transfer of merchandise in international trade, and contract withdrawal in European and American civil codes.

The choice of a comparative study approach is due to the innovative proposals in contract and tort law adopted in some of the most important harmonization documents of European law that have been published since the middle of the twentieth century, These serve as reference sources for Latin American academics who seek to project the reach and evolution of contract and liability law within the Roman-Germanic tradition, as related to the current needs of Latin American law.

Thus, some of the civil liability problems this research book examines related to property and contract reveal the breadth and detail of their treatment, in order to propose an enriching debate to visualize a general perspective of its morphology and treatment.

CONTENIDO

Introduction

Chapter 1. TOWARD A RECONSTRUCTION OF STRICT LIABILITY LAW THROUGH COLOMBIAN JURISPRUDENCE

• Preliminary considerations

• The legislative formula of article 2356 of the Colombian Civil Code and its jurisprudential interpretation

• Characterization of hazardous activities and its effects for the attribution of liability in the jurisprudential interpretation of article 2356 Of the Colombian Civil Code
• Strict liability for risk through an examination of Colombian jurisprudence
• Hazardous activities and strict liability for injury: the potential for injury
• Hazardous activities and the use of presumptions in Colombian jurisprudence
• Final considerations

Chapter 2. PRESUMPTIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF CIVIL RESPONSIBILITY AND THEIR APPLICATION IN COLOMBIAN

JURISPRUDENCE

• Preliminary considerations
• Civil liability derived from dangerous activities in Colombia

• Foundation and definition
• Evolution of liability derived from dangerous activities in Colombia

• Presumptions and their treatment in the Colombian legal system

• Legal nature
• Classification of presumptions 

• Presumptions in the context of civil liability

• The presumption of liability 
• The presumption of fault
• Strict liability

• Evidentiary activity in the context of liability for dangerous activities

• Effects of the presumption of article 2356 of the Civil Code
• Alternatives to proving liability for hazardous activities in the General Procedure Code

• Final considerations

Chapter 3. THE METHOD TO TRANSFER OWNERSHIP OF MERCHANDISE IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE

• Preface and panorama
• The international trend
• Closing reflections

Chapter 4. EUROPEAN LAW OF CIVIL LIABILITY

• The paradigms of European law of civil liability
• The Italian evolution of fault-based and faultless liability in

• European harmonization projects

• The impact of the PETL and CFR in the Italian legal framework
• Closing Reflections

Chapter 5. THE RIGHT TO WITHDRAWAL DUE TO BREACH OF CONTRACT IN EUROPEAN AND SOUTH AMERICAN CIVIL CODES

• Preliminary considerations
• Withdrawal from contract for breach
• Withdrawal of contract in general
• Conventional withdrawal
• Legislative withdrawal
• Toward withdrawal within the framework of the general theory of contract
• Concluding remarks

General conclusions

Bibliography