Some Fictions in Common Law

Abstract

When Jescheck refers to ‘relics of the past’ when discussing negligence, namely the ‘Rest von Erfolgshaftung, der im Erfolgsunrecht der Fahrlässigkeitstat fortlebt’ (267) and HSR, dealing with the ‘door het gevolg gekwalificeerde delicten’ where the law with reference to such consequences only demands a causal link, but neither intent, nor negligence, state: (268) “... it could be said that (these offences) are actually atavisms, that is: specimens of the Germanic Erfolgshaftung referred to above, emerging anew in our times”, then we are being confronted with a historic reality: in mankind’s ceaseless voyage into the future, the only permanent thing seems to be change.