The impact of increased risk on civil liability for property damage

In the article, the author substantiates the expediency of liability even in the absence of fault for damage caused by activities or objects that carry an increased risk of causing property damage to other subjects. It is noted that civil legislation consists mainly of norms aimed at positive regulation, establishing the rules of lawful behavior. The will and awareness of the fulfillment of duties, laid down in the norms of civil legislation, are directed precisely at lawful behavior. The will and awareness as prerequisites for the entry of persons into the civil circulation determine legal regulation and give the behavior of persons, in accordance with the established norm, legal significance. The possibility of choice, which a person realizes in the permitted activity, is connected with the will. In turn, choice is often directly or relatively based on risk as an element of decision making. In the course of the study, a conclusion was formed that in accordance with the distributive manifestation of the principle of justice of tort liability in civil law (distributive justice), the distribution of burdens and benefits of useful, but risky types of activities should take place as follows. The one who receives the benefits and has to bear the burden is the price of co-existence in the social world. It is unfair if the subject of risky activity will transfer the burden of loss from such activity to the victims, leaving only the benefit behind. Normative ascertainment in a number of cases of no-fault liability is dictated precisely by the just desire to restore the violated property sphere of the victim at the expense of the person who caused the damage, who risked engaging in an activity that creates an increased danger for others, and who was aware that the implementation of this activity could lead to accidental damage. It should be noted that the above-mentioned arguments for the implementation of the principle of justice, according to which «the one who increases the danger for those present above the usual level through his activities, must also bear responsibility for this increase», are also relevant in the course of defining other types of special torts. Particularly in cases of civil liability in the field of providing medical services. A certain medical activity carried out using X-ray or laser devices, to a large extent, always contains an increased risk of unforeseen complications due to the impossibility of full control over it by medical professionals; therefore it is quite appropriate to attribute such activity to the source of increased danger.