Remoteness of causation in tort law

Abstract

The search for a functional criterion was carried out that would allow assessing the remote­ness of causation. The study of a legally significant (proximate) cause has a fundamentally different nature than the study of a factual cause. Factual causation determines whether an act belongs to the "chain" of causal connections which led to the harm; legal causation is a causal selection that consists in determining the responsible cause based on legal policy considerations. It is concluded that the main criterion for assessing the remoteness of causation should be the criterion of tortious risk. The essence of this criterion is that a personʼs liability for the consequences of his/her unlawful behavior should be limited only to the harm the risk of which made this behavior unlawful, since it is fair that the basis for liability (fault) should serve simultaneously as its limit. The study of tortious risks should be included in a comprehensive analysis of the tortious incident, and along with it, also the determination of whether the harm actually inflicted on the victim belongs to the category of harm the risk of which made the tortfeasorʼs conduct unlawful. In addition to this, other considerations, which can be broadly termed legal policy considerations, must also be taken into account in assessing the remoteness of causation. These considerations are based on the idea of what global socio-economic outcomes the law should achieve and how the resolution of a particular tort case will contribute to or impede the achievement of such outcomes. The doctrine of remoteness of causation (limits of liability) is the final frontier of a comprehensive study into the compensability of losses suffered by a person. Therefore, it is extremely important that, when applying it, courts provide the actual reasons for their judgment, including economic considerations and related legal policy considerations.