Book Review: Pure Economic Loss in Europe
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X0801500208 |
| Published date | 01 June 2008 |
| Date | 01 June 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Reviews
15 MJ 2 (2008) 267
degree of protection is useful because it provides bona de entrepreneurs with a level
playing eld . e discus sion of the recent Green paper on the review of the consumer
acquis (2007) nearly produced just such a compromise.6
On a na l note, the two volumes reviewed oer a good i ntroduction to the ongoing
debates about the regulation of trade pract ices on the European le vel. As such, they are
of interest both to those who are active in trade practices or consumer protecti on law and
those who focus on European law.
Ewoud Hondius
Professor of Civil Law, University of Utrecht
Mauro Bussani and Vernon Palmer (eds.), Pure Economic Loss in Europe, Cambr idge
University Press 2003, x lviii + 589 pp., hardback, £80, ISBN 0-521824-6 4-4
is book is the third in t he series e Common Core of European Private Law and
deals with one of the most d iscussed topics of Europea n tort law scholarship, that of
pure economic loss. Such a loss can be dened as a pecuniary or commercial loss that
does not arise from actionable physical, emotional or reputational injury to person or
physical injury to propert y. In line with the met hodology of the ‘Common Core Project’
(or ‘Trento Project’), the editors devised a questionna ire consisting of twenty fact ual
situations, eac h to be answered under the laws, codes and doc trines of 13 c ountries by
national reporters. e general pur pose of the study was to inquire to what extent, if
any, a common core of principles and r ules exist s concerning compensation for pure
economic loss within Europe an tort law.
e book consists of eleven chapters, which do not merely study pure economic loss
from a legal perspective, but also f rom an historical and an economic point of view. is
review wil l rst give a short overv iew of each chapter individual ly and then make some
general comments.
§1. OVERVIEW
In Chapter 1 (written by the editors), a taxonomy of pure e conomic loss cases is
presented. e authors disti nguish between four categories t hat seem to be functionally
and relationally distinct. In a case of ‘ricochet loss’, an injurer (C) causes physical damage
to the propert y or person of one par ty (B), and that loss in turn causes the impairment
of a plainti’s right (A). So a direct victim suers physical damage wh ile the plainti
6 is discussion took place i n the Dutch Consumer Council, which operates within the Social and
Economic Counci l.
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