현행 유럽책임법에 있어서의 인과관계

Causation is inherent in liability in European Community level. Some of legislative texts, for example Directive on defective products or Directive on environmental liability expressly mention the requirement of causation. However, most of European directives or regulations dealing with liability give neither a definition of nor information about it. European Courts seem to consider the conditio sine qua non test as being the causal test. The conditio sine qua non test is normally used by the method of elimination. They also seem to require that the causal link be a direct causal link. It seems that there is no direct link when consequences are too remote or unforeseeable or when the misconduct of the European Community is followed by the autonomous decision of another authority. Nonetheless, the liability of the Commission does not seem to be established when its conduct consisted in the implementation of a Regulation adopted by another authority. The extent of the Community's liability is diminished in case of the applicant's own negligence. In this case, the negligence of the applicant is actually taken into account when assessing the extent to which the wrongdoer has to compensate the damage. However, according to case las of the European Court of Justice, the negligence may also break the causal relationship between the misconduct of the wrongdoer and the alleged damage, in case of a lack of information.