Comparisons in the Provisions of Responsibility for the Actions of others in the Civil Laws: French, Iraqi, and UAE
Prof. Dr. Adnan Ibrahim Sarhan
Professor of Civil Law & Dean
School of Law, Asharjah University, UAE
Abstract:
Responsibility, whether criminal or civil, is personal to the perpetrator of the crime or to the harmful act. However, there may be a practical need to accept the accountability of the person for the act of another, to protect the injured person from the insolvency of the perpetrator of the harmful act. In accordance with this approach, the civil laws in France, Iraq, and UAE, codifying the responsibility of those who supervise others, and the responsibility of the superior for the actions of his subordinates. This research has dealt with a comparison between the provisions of these laws in the scope, characteristics and legal basis of this responsibility, and a clear difference was found in the scope of responsibility. It also became clear that there is a convergence in the characteristics of responsibility, except for the uniqueness of the UAE law by making it optional, leaving the judge to estimate its imposition on those in charge of oversight if there is a justification for that, while it is compulsory in other laws.
As for the basis of responsibility, the civil laws in Iraq and the UAE still establish the responsibility of the person in charge of the oversight over the supposed negligence as an imposition capable of proving the opposite. Responsibility is by denying the one responsible for his negligence, so the French law was adopted, with an effort of French judiciary the objective responsibility of the one responsible for the act of others. The injured person does not need to prove the fault of the responsible, and the latter cannot get rid of the responsibility by denying the fault on his own, but only by proving the foreign cause.
Keywords: The harmful act, the general system of responsibility for the act of others, the responsibility of the supervisor, the responsibility of the superior for the actions of his subordinates, the assumed fault, the objective responsibility, the civil immunity of the subordinates.