W Tort and Insurance Law Vol. 17 Edited by the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law together with the Research Unit for European Tort Law of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Miquel Martín-Casals (ed.) Children in Tort Law Part I: Children as Tortfeasors With Contributions by Bertil Bengtsson Luca Nocco Willem H. van Boom Ken Oliphant Giovanni Comandé Caroline Pellerin-Rugliano Laurence Francoz-Terminal Jordi Ribot Susanna Hirsch Josep Solé Feliu Jir`´í Hrádek Pieter De Tavernier Igor V. Kornev Maria Manuel Veloso Fabien Lafay Gerhard Wagner Miquel Martín-Casals Felix Wieser Olivier Moréteau SpringerWienNewYork European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law Landesgerichtsstraße 11 A-1080 Vienna Tel.: +43 1 40127 1688 Fax: +43 1 40127 1685 E-Mail:
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[email protected] This work is published with the financial support of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Gedruckt mit Förderung des Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF). This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically those of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, broadcasting, reproduction by photocopying machines or similar means, and storage in data banks. © 2006 Springer-Verlag/Wien Printed in Germany Springer-Verlag Wien New York is part of Springer Science + Business Media springeronline.com Product Liability: The publisher can give no guarantee for the information contained in this book. This also refers to that on drug dosage and application thereof. In each individual case the respective user must check the accuracy of the information given by consulting other pharmaceutical literature. Typesetting: Composition & Design Services, Minsk, Belarus Printing and binding: Strauss GmbH, 69509 Mörlenbach, Germany Printed on acid-free and chlorine-free bleached paper SPIN: 11382751 CIP data applied for ISSN 1616-8623 ISBN-10 ISBN-13 3-211-24480-8 SpringerWienNewYork 978-3-211-24480-7 SpringerWienNewYork Preface This book is the first result of a research project funded by the European Science Foundation and undertaken by the University of Bonn (Germany), the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa), the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law (ECTIL) (Vienna) and the Observatory of European and Comparative Private Law of the University of Girona (OECPL) (Spain) and conducted under the coordination of these two latter institutions. The background of this study was the fact that, although in many areas of law national legislators have developed rules dealing with children along very similar lines, in the area of tort law these rules are still very diverse from country to country. However, the need to honour the general principle of protection of children, generally acknowl