Examples Combat Action Badge Certificate

Miners, risk society, and in tort competition

The recent misfortune of which were the 33 miners in the mine San José and its subsequent encounter with life should be targeted risk situations that abound in our social environment. To address this problem, the law provides as a tool of liability for damage or liability, and eventual social discussion on the need to recalibrate the risks they expose us modern life requires us to rethink the validity and effectiveness of our responses on current tort law.

Is our right to match current challenges? If we assume that society expects of the legal system predictable and efficient solutions to their problems, the answer is probably no. In Chile, the rules governing contractual liability is largely in the hands of judges, as the law applicable extra-Articles 1437, 2284, and 2314 of the Civil Code determines in broad terms the legal elements that give rise to damages. In turn, the lack of uniform legal criteria, due perhaps to the absence of a system of precedents and the misuse of the appeal on the merits, uncertainty remains regarding the regulatory elements that make up the liability and the amounts to which victims are allowed. This leads to stability is generated by interpreting legal doctrine, usually inspired by the German or French doctrine of the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, in other words, in times and places very different from our reality.

The problem is compounded by the existence of risk much closer to those posed by the collapse of a mine. Ours is certainly a risk society, many of which are preventable. One example is the practice of many supermarkets carry cars on the same escalator passing their customers, putting their own clients to falls and accidents at a fraction of those who carry such negligence cars. If, as is the trend in the United States, such everyday risks must be addressed through exemplary damages awarded by judges, is something that remains to be seen. What is clear is that tort law is a tool to increase its usefulness in the near future to address the risks that surround us.