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PROBLEMS OF RELATION BETWEEN FAULT
AND CAUSATION IN TORT LAW

E.A. EVSTIGNEEV,
PhD in Law, Master of Jurisprudence (Russian School of Private Law),
Consultant of the Alexeev Private Law Research Centre under the President
of the Russian Federation

DOI: 10.24031/1992-2043-2020-20-1-33-59

The author analyzes the problem of relation between such grounds of liability as fault
and causation. Such relation is misjudged in Russian theory and therefore unexplored.
The theory focuses mainly on the problem of relation between two other grounds of
liability – wrongfulness and fault. Currently, courts intuitively and fragmentary refer
to some aspects of the influence of fault on causation, which demonstrates the practical
importance of theoretical research of the issue of relation between the various grounds
of liability. The article analyzes the two levels of relation between fault and causation –
material and procedural. At the procedural level the influence of fault on causation is
considered through analysis of sharing of burden and standard of proof. It is important
that Russian tort law provides for rebuttable presumption of fault. This presumption puts
special features (implying advantages and disadvantages) on the Russian tort model,
and radically influences on relation between fault and causation. Based on the research
findings, the author draws some conclusions as to the current importance of fault and
causation in establishing the grounds of liability and makes some proposals regarding
improvement of the Russian tort model by increasing the dependence of causation from
the potential tortfeasor’s fault.


Keywords: fault; causation; wrongfulness; presumption of fault; burden of proof;
standard of proof.

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Information about the author


Evstigneev E.A. (Moscow, Russia) – PhD in Law, Master of Jurisprudence (Russian
School of Private Law), Consultant of the Alexeev Private Law Research Centre
under the President of the Russian Federation (8, Bldg. 2 Ilyinka St., Moscow,
103132, Russia; e-mail: e_evstigneev@mail.ru).

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