The Dialectic of Punitive Compensation in Civil Law – The Problem and the Possibility! A Comparative Critical Study of Philosophy and Rooting between the Anglo-Saxon and Latin Schools (Part 1)

Prof. Muhammad Irfan Al Khatib
Professor of Civil Law
Ahmed bin Mohammed Military College
Doha, Qatar

Abstract:


Following an in-depth and comparative approach, the research presents the dialectic of punitive compensation in civil law, dealing with the idea and concept of this compensation in the Anglo-Saxon civil system and the possibility of its identification within the Latin civil system, addressing in the first section the problem raised by the legal application of this concept within the Latin School. Then it presents its second section for the possibility of legal adoption, on the comparative and national “French” level. Concluding each research section, with analysis and criticism.
The research paper concludes that, despite the problems that the adoption of these compensations may raise in the French legal system, the possibility remains available and urgent. It requires from the French legislator a bolder and more open legislative stance in order to reach legal harmony that will restore to the compensation institution its lost role in reparation and accountability for mistakes. It encourages the legislator to achieve more rapprochement with the Anglo-Saxon system in this field, including the Canadian experience.
Accordingly, the research recommended the necessity of reviewing the French legislator’s legal position regarding the general adoption of the concept of punitive compensation, according to a legal reading that restores to civil liability its lost normative role, looking at the error and the one who is punished, as well as looking at the injury and being accountable for it. In a way that provides an effective, complete and non-diminishing legal treatment, civil liability policies and rules are applied to these compensations without inserting any alternative role for criminal or administrative liability within it, hoping that the French legislator will, in the coming days, be firmer in clarifying his legal and authoritative position on whether to adopt these punitive compensations.

Key words: civil punishment, normative role of civil liability, profitable mistake, civil fine, compensation and damage.

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