Law Commons^™

Perfiles Comparativos Sobre La Responsabilidad Civil. La Culpa Al Servicio De Los Débiles, Mauro Bussani

Mauro Bussani

The purpose of this essay is to present and challenge a cherished tenet of the Western negligence law. This is the idea according to which every person’s behavior should conform to the standard of care expected of the so-called ‘reasonable person’ endowed with conventional knowledge, average musculature, normal reactions, commonplace skills, and ordinary intelligence and memory. In particular, the paper: (i) discusses the flaws of this standard when applied to persons who are weaker than the average, i.e. minors, the elderly, and those who suffer from a psychological disability; and (ii) shows how several functions traditionally attributed to the general …