Responsibility and Fault

These highly original essays develop themes implicit in Herbert Hart and the author's Causation in the Law (2nd ed. 1985). Why should we be held responsible for the harm we cause? Honore proposes a theory of responsibility,'outcome responsibility', according to which, to be responsible, it is sufficient to have intervened in the world. To act and to be responsible is to assume certain risks, so that responsibility can be a matter of luck rather than fault or merit. Whether responsibility carries with it moral blame or legal liability is an important but secondary question. With the help of this theory he explains the moral basis of strict liability and of tort law in general; shows when there is a moral difference between positive acts and omissions; and indicates the extent to which the circumstances that cause a wrongdoer to do wrong should affect his responsibility. In 2001, writing in the Neue Juristische Wochenschrift Professor Reinhard Zimmermann selected Responsibility and Fault as one the foreign law books of the year, stressing that the argument that responsibility can be independent of fault would be especially interesting to German lawyers. From reviews of the hardback edition: "the essays present and defend the author's influential philosophical framework for the understanding of responsibility, and clarify its relation to, .. the law of torts and criminal law. The style throughout is elegant and often witty, and complex arguments...are developed with enviable lucidity." -Roderick Bagshaw (Law Quarterly Review) "Honore is never less than interesting and provocative. This splendid collection of essays can be strongly recommended to anyone interested in legal philosophy or in the moral dimensions of agency and responsibility." - R.A. Duff ( Philosophical Quarterly) "a marvellous collection of essays" William Lucy (Professional Negligence) "...it is a joy to read" -Dennis Klimchuk (Mind)