A common core research on government liability in tort: a comparative introduction

This chapter looks at government liability in tort as an entry point for the whole comparative research on European administrative laws. The chapter is in four parts. It first illustrates the main features of the new research, in particular the combined use of history and legal comparison and the choice of a ‘factual’ analysis, based on hypothetical cases. Second, it explains the reasons underlying the choice of administrative liability, which may be regarded as a worst-case scenario. Third, some issues in methodology are examined, including the construction of the questionnaire, which is at the heart of the ‘common core’ method, and the choice of a variety of legal systems, including that of a non-State entity, the EU. In the final part, there is an analysis of the implications that follow from the study of government liability for the whole research. While less recent comparative studies had a high level of abstraction, the factual approach sheds light on both differences and similarities between the legal systems selected. From this viewpoint, not only is government liability in tort characterized by both commonality and diversity, but their importance has also variably changed across time.