CYIL vol. 11 (2020)

CYIL 11 (2020)

STRICT LIABILITY AS A LEGAL PROTECTING MECHANISM …

4. Conclusion Liability for damage not based on the fault element is a long-established institute of general tort law, which within the development of science and technology acquires an increasing importance in addition to the traditional definition of liability for fault-based wrongful act while fault-based liability slowly loses its dominant character and consequently strict liability becomes an equal mechanism for deriving the wrongdoer’s liability in cases where wider protection of the harmed party as a weaker entity appears to be fair. This kind of protection consists in strengthening its procedural position in which the injured party does not need to prove not only fault (intent or negligence) of the wrongdoer but also wrongdoer’s conduct with signs of unlawful conduct (breach of statutory or contractual obligations). Undoubtedly, activities related to the use of nuclear installations are, in terms of risk theory and its impact on the identification of certain activities as legitimizing the establishment of stricter liability, activities in which their risk level (especially the extent of the damage) justifies a tendency towards increased protection of the injured party. At the same time, however, it reduces the disproportionate strictness of liability based solely on causality between a nuclear event and an occurrence of damage by means of liberation grounds that allow the liable entity (nuclear installation operator) to relieve of liability even if all other liability conditions are met (nuclear event, nuclear damage, causal link between nuclear event and nuclear damage). However, the scope and content of these liberation grounds are to some extent still a subject to the development of nuclear liability legislation and will pro futuro continue to face changes (both interpretative or normative) to be able to reflect on constantly changing social, economic and other variables in nuclear liability relations.

369