A guest statute is a term used in the law of torts to describe a statute that makes it more difficult for a passenger in an automobile to recover damages from the driver for injuries received in an accident resulting from ordinary negligence on the part of the driver. Instead, passengers are limited to suits based on gross negligence, recklessness, or intentional misconduct. The statute may also place a cap on the damages to be awarded, or limit damages to compensation for actual physical injuries.
The purpose of the guest statute is to both protect drivers from frivolous litigation, and to protect insurance companies from collusive and fraudulent suits (wherein the passenger sues the driver in order to collect from the driver's insurer). For the same reason, some states also passed aviation guest statutes, which limit the liability of non-commercial airplane passengers. However guest statutes of all types have now been abolished in most states, either legislatively or by the courts.
- [http://av8r.net/columns/legaleagles.cfm?printable=1 Legal Issues in Accidents and the Status of Passengers]
Category:Tort law
Law
:This article is about law in society. For other possible meanings, see law (disambiguation).
Law (a loanword from Old Norselag), in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments of/for those who do not follow the established rules of conduct.
Law is typically administered through a system of courts, in which judges hear disputes between parties and apply a set of rules in order to provide an outcome that is just and fair. The manner in which law is administered is known as a legal system, which typically has developed through tradition in each country.
Legal practitioners, most often, must be professionally trained in the law before they are permitted to advocate for a party in a court of law, draft legal documents, or give legal advice.
Legal traditions
There are generally four broad legal traditions that are practiced in the world today.
Civil law
The Civilian system of law is a codified law that sets out a comprehensive system of rules that are applied and interpreted by judges. It is by and large the most commonly practiced system of law in the world, with almost 60 % of the world's population living in a country ruled on the civilian system.
The most important difference to common law is that normally, only legislative enactments are considered to be legally binding, but not precedent cases. However, as a practical matter, courts normally follow their previous decisions. Furthermore, in some civil law systems (e.g. in Germany), the writings of legal scholars have considerable influence on the courts.
In most jurisdictions the core areas of private law are codified in the form of a civil code, but in some, like Scotland it remains uncodified. The civil law system has its origins in Roman law, which was adopted by scholars and courts from the late middle ages onwards. Most modern systems go back to the 19th centurycodification movement. The civil codes of many, particularly Latin countries and former French and Spanish colonies closely trail the Code de Napoléon in some fashion. However, this is not true for most Central and Eastern European, Scandinavian and East Asian countries. Notably, the German BGB was developed from Roman law with reference to German legal tradition.
The importance of the Code Napoléon should also not be overemphasized as it covers only the core areas of private law, while other codes and statutes govern fields such as corporate law, administrative law, tax law and constitutional law.
Common law
The Common law is an Anglo-Saxon legal tradition, based on unwritten laws developed through judicial decisions that create binding precedent. The common law system is currently in practice in Australia, Canada (excluding Quebec), United Kingdom, and the United States (excluding Louisiana). In addition to these countries several others have adapted the common law system into a mixed system. For example, India and Nigera operate largely on a common law system but incorporate a good deal of customary law and religious law.
Customary law
Customary law are systems of law that has evolved largely on their own within a given country and have been adapted to meet the needs of the particular culture. Note that customary law may also be relevant within jurisdictions following another legal tradition in fields or subfields of law where no legislative enactment exists. For example, in Austria, scholars of private law often claim that customary law continues to exist, whereas public law scholars dispute this claim. (In any case, it is hard to find any practically relevant examples.)
Religious law
Many countries base their system of law on religious tenants. The most dominant system of this form of law is Muslim law (or "Sharia") which is a codified law that is found within the Koran. These laws deal primarily with the personal rights and dispute resolution between individuals. It is used in some Middle Eastern nations; such as in the Iran and Saudi Arabia.
On a smaller level there are still regions of the world that practice canon law, which is followed by Catholics and Anglicans, and a similar legal system is used by the Eastern Orthodox Church. The same can be said for Jewish law (halakha or halacha), which is followed by Orthodox and Conservative Jews, in substantially different forms.
Bodies of law
In the broadest sense, bodies of law can be subdivided on the basis of who the parties to an action are. It is frequent that practiced fields of law overlap into several of these bodies of law.
Private law
The area of private law in a legal system concerns law that oversees disputes between private individuals. This area is, to a large extent, the most comprehensive area of law, dealing with all non-criminal harm one person does to another.
Public law
The area of public law, in a general sense, is the law in a given legal system that concerns disputes between the government and private individuals residing within the country. The state can bring actions against people for criminal acts, as well as breach of regulatory laws.
Equally, individuals can bring actions against the government for harm it has done. This includes grounds on the basis of a breach of regulations, legislate on matters beyond their competence, or violation of an individuals rights. These last two points are often protected under a countries’ constitution.
Procedural law
Procedural law concerns the areas of law that regulate how all actions are dealt with. This includes who can have access to the court system, how complaints are submitted, and what are the rights of the parties involved. Procedural law is often known as "adjective" law as it is the law that concern how other laws are to be applied. Typically, this is broadly covered by a government’s civil and criminal procedure rules. But equally this includes the law of evidence which determines what means are used to prove facts, as well as, the law regarding remedies.
Philosophy of law is a branch of philosophy and jurisprudence which studies basic questions about law and legal systems, such as "what is the law?", "what are the criteria for legal validity?", "what is the relationship between law and morality?", and many other similar questions.
In the western tradition there are several schools of thought on the philosophical basis of law. First, there is natural law, which attempts to describe law as an inherent quality in humans that is derived from natures. Second, there is the positivism which believes that law is a purely human-made construct that society uses to maintain social order. Third, there is legal realism which believes that law is an arbitrary set of rules that are largely established through the tastes and preferences of judges.
Anthropology of law
:See main discussion at Honour
Law has an anthropological dimension. It has been recognized from Montesquieu to the present that law is shaped by the kind of society in which it is practised.
One continuum into which various societies can be placed contrasts the "culture of law" with the "culture of honour". In order to have a culture of law, people must dwell in a society where a government exists whose authority is hard to evade and generally recognised as legitimate. People take their grievances before the government and its agents, who arbitrate disputes and enforce penalties. This behaviour is contrasted with the culture of honour, where respect for persons and groups stems from fear of the revenge they may exact if their person, property, or prerogatives are not respected.
Cultures of law must be maintained. They can be eroded by declining respect for the law, achieved either by weak government unable to wield its authority, or by burdensome restrictions that attempt to forbid behaviour prevalent in the culture or in some subculture of the society. When a culture of law declines, there is a possibility that an culture of honor will arise in its place.
History
Practice of law
Practice of law is typically overseen by either a government organization or independent regulating body such as a bar association or barrister society. To practice law – i.e. appear in front of a judge on behalf of someone, draft legal documents, etc. – the practitioner must be certified by the regulating body. This usually entails a two or three year program at a university’s faculty of law or a law school, followed by an entrance examination (eg. bar admissions).
Once accredited, a legal practitioners will often work in law firm, as well as in government, a private corporation, or even work as sole practitioner.
A significant component to the practice of law in the common law tradition involves legal research in order to determine the current state of the law. This usually entails exploring case reporters, legal periodicals, and legislation.
- Cheyenne Way: Conflict & Case Law in Primitive Jurisprudence, Karl N. Llewellyn and E. Adamson Hoebel, University of Oklahoma Press, 1983, trade paperback, 374 pages, ISBN 0806118555
- The Bilingual LSP Dictionary. Principles and Practice for Legal language, Sandro Nielsen, Gunter Narr Verlag 1994.
- [http://browse.addall.com/Browse/Author/2088479-1 Other books by Karl N. Llewellyn]
- David, René, and John E. C. Brierley. Major Legal Systems in the World Today: An Introduction to the Comparative Study of Law. 3d ed. London: Stevens, 1985 (ISBN 0420473408).
External links
- [http://www.legalmatch.com LegalMatch] Legal Resource
- [http://ausicl.com The Australian Institute of Comparative Legal Systems]
- [http://www.lpig.org Law and Policy Institutions]
- [http://www.llbee.com/news.php?p=news Laws External Education- Legal News By Subject]
- [http://www.4lawschool.com 4LawSchool- Legal Reference]
- [http://ww3.definitions-legal.com:8567/ Law, Legal Definitions & Reference]
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/1996-3/law.htm Essentials of Law-Related Education. ERIC Digest.]
- [http://www.law.cornell.edu LII - Topical overviews, US Supreme Court decisions, US Code (Acts of Congress)]
- [http://www.worldlii.org WorldLII - The World Legal Information Institute]
- [http://www.lawmoose.com LawMoose Legal Reference Library]
- [http://legallinks.jenkinslaw.org Legal Research Links]
- [http://www.findlaw.com FindLaw]
- [http://ausicl.com The Australian Institute of Comparative Legal Systems]
- [http://www.nolo.com/glossary.cfm Everybody's Legal Glossary] - From Nolo
- [http://www.alllaw.com/ AllLaw]
- [http://legal.wikicities.com/ WikiCities Legal Site]
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
- [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/law-ideology/ Law and Ideology]
- [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/law-language/ Law and Language]
- [http://en.jurispedia.org/ The shared law] in Jurispedia - [http://www.avocatura.com Romanian Law]
- [http://www.thedailylaw.com Daily Law news]
- [http://members.fortunecity.com/victorcauchi/lex/lexindex.htm Laws of Malta] Chapter summaries and a general Glossary of definitions.
- [http://LawyerIntl.com LawyerIntl.com] Legal Resource and Law Dictionary
- [http://LawGuru.com LawGuru.com] Legal Portal
- [http://forumprawne.org Prawo i porady prawne] - web discussion board about Polish law
Category:Core issues in ethicsja:法 (法学)simple:Lawth:กฎหมาย
Torts
In the common law, a tort is a civil wrong, other than a breach of contract for which the law provides a remedy. The origins of the modern law of torts lie in the old remedies of trespass and trespass on the case. The term itself comes from Law French and means, literally, 'a wrong' (avoir tort = "to be wrong" or "to have wronged [somebody]"). The equivalent body of law in civil law legal systems is delict.
A tort is a breach of a non-contractual duty potentially owed to the entire world, imposed by law. The majority of legal claims are brought in tort.
In general
Tort law is distinguished from the law of contract, the law of restitution, and the criminal law. Contract law protects expectations arising from promises, restitution prevents unjust enrichment, and criminal law punishes wrongs that are so severe (like murder) that the sovereign has a direct interest in preventing them. Note that many wrongs can result in liability to both the state (as crimes) and to the victim (as torts).
Tort law serves to protect a person's interest in his or her bodily security, tangible property, financial resources, or reputation. Interference with one of these interests is redressable by an action for compensation, usually in the form of unliquidated damages. The law of torts therefore aims to restore the injured person to the position he or she was in before the tort was committed (the expectation or rightful position principle).
In most countries, torts are typically divided into three broad categories: intentional torts, negligence and nuisance. Additional categories or subcategories are recognized in some countries. Some torts are strict liability torts, in that the plaintiff may recover by showing only that they suffered an injury, which caused them damages, and that the defendant was responsible for causing the injury — there is no need to show the defendant's state of mind or that the defendant breached a duty of due care.
Definition of a tort
In his famous treatise, Handbook of the Law of Torts, William Prosser defined "tort" as "a term applied to a miscellaneous and more or less unconnected group of civil wrongs other than breach of contract for which a court of law will afford a remedy in the form of an action for damages."
Besides damages, in a limited range of cases, tort law will tolerate self-help, for example, using reasonable force to expel a trespasser. Further, in the case of a continuing tort, or even where harm is merely threatened, the courts will sometimes grant an injunction to restrain the continuance or threat of harm.
Purposes of torts
The law of torts determines whether a loss that befalls one person should or should not be shifted to another person. Some of the consequences of injury or death, such as medical expenses incurred, can be made good by payment of damages. Damages may also be paid, for want of a better means of compensation, for non-pecuniary consequences, such as pain.
In "The Aims of the Law of Tort" (1951) Glanville Williams saw four possible bases on which different torts rested: appeasement, justice, deterrence and compensation. The law tends to emphasise different aims in relation to intentional torts from those in relation to negligence or strict liability. After Williams' article, there grew up a school of economic analysts of law who emphasized incentives and deterrence.
Categories of torts
Torts are generally categorized by two factors:
# The level of intent that must be assessed against the tortfeasor, and
# The interest affected by the tort.
The tort of negligence is the broadest of the torts and is the basis of most personal injury cases. Its four classic elements are as follows: (1) The defendant owed a duty of due care (that is, he is bound to act as a reasonably prudent person under the circumstances) to the plaintiff; (2) the defendant breached that duty; (3) the defendant's breach was the legal and proximate cause of injury to the plaintiff; and (4) the plaintiff suffered damages as a result of the defendant's actions. These elements are often summarized as the formula of "duty, breach, causation, and damages."
Obviously, whether any given injury can be brought as a negligence claim depends upon whether a lawyer can convince a court that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of due care to not inflict the particular injury at issue.
Nuisance
The tort of nuisance allows a plaintiff to sue for most acts that interfere with their use and enjoyment of their land. For example, noise pollution from airports is usually remedied through nuisance claims.
Strict liability
Strict liability is applied in some countries to ultrahazardous activities, which present such grave dangers that parties engaged in those activities are held liable for injuries resulting therefrom even if they were not negligent. This theory is applied to injuries resulting from things such as the keeping of wild animals, use of explosives, or storage or use of radioactive materials.
In some countries, strict liability is the rule in certain product liability cases, on the theory that only strict liability can force manufacturers to always pursue the safest possible design. It is also believed necessary to force all parties in the "chain of commerce" to exercise the highest level of due care to ensure that products are in good condition and are not dangerously defective.
Also, in some jurisdictions, copyright infringement has been made a strict liability tort by statute.
Torts and criminal law
In common law, many torts originated in the criminal law. As noted above, there is still some overlap between crime and tort. For example, in English law an assault is both a crime and a tort (a form of trespass to the person).
The difference that grew up between the two is that in tort it is the victim (or 'claimant' in English law) who will normally initiate any court action and who aims to have a wrong compensated (for example by the payment of damages) or prevented (for example by injunctive relief). Criminal actions are normally for punitive purposes and initiated by a public body or their representative. Another distinction is that incarceration is available as a penalty for crimes, but not for torts.
Regardless, many jurisdictions retain a punitive element as a part of the law of tort via exemplary damages. Some torts may have a public element — for example, public nuisance, — with actions being maintained by a public body. Also, while criminal law is primarily punitive, many jurisdictions have developed forms of monetary compensation or restitution which criminal courts can directly order the defendant to pay to the victim.
An automobile is a wheeled vehicle that carries its own motor. Different types of automobiles include cars, buses, trucks, jeeps, and vans, with cars being the most popular. The term is derived from Greek 'autos' (self) and Latin 'movére' (move), referring to the fact that it 'moves by itself'. Earlier terms for automobile include 'horseless carriage' and 'motor car'. An automobile has seats for the driver and, almost without exception, one or more passengers. It is the main source of transportation across the world.
In 2005 there are 500 million cars worldwide (0.07 per capita), of which 220 million are located in the United States (0.75 per capita).
History
:Main article: History of the automobile
Steam-powered self-propelled vehicles were devised in the late 18th century. The first self-propelled car was built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot in 1769—it could attain speeds of up to 6 km/h. In 1771 he designed another steam-driven engine, which ran so fast that it rammed into a wall, producing the world’s first car accident.
In 1807 Francois Isaac de Rivaz designed the first internal combustion engine (sometimes abbreviated "ICE" today). He subsequently used it to develop the world’s first vehicle to run on such an engine, one that used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen to generate energy.
This spawned the birth of a number of designs based on the internal combustion engine in the early nineteenth century with little or no degree of commercial success. In 1860 thereafter, Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir built the first successful two-stroke gas driven engine. In 1862 he again built an experimental vehicle driven by his gas-engine, which ran at a speed of 3 km/h. These cars became popular and by 1865 could be frequently seen on the roads.
The first American automobiles with gasoline-powered internal combustion engines were completed in 1877 by George Baldwin Selden of Rochester, New York, who applied for a patent on the automobile in 1879. Selden received his patent and later sued the Ford Motor company for infringing his patent. Henry Ford was notoriously against the American patent system, and Selden's case against Ford went all the way to the Supreme Court, who ruled that Ford had to pay a penalty to Selden, but could continue manufacturing automobiles, because the technology had changed quite a bit by that time.
Later on, in Germany, automobiles were developed almost simultaneously in 1886 by German inventors working independently: Carl Benz on 3 July1886 in Mannheim, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Stuttgart (also inventors of the first motor bike) and in 1888/89 German - Austrian inventor Siegfried Marcus in Vienna.
Meanwhile, notable advances in steam power evolved in Birmingham, England by the Lunar Society. It was here that the term horsepower was first used. It was in Birmingham also that the first British four wheel petrol-driven automobiles were built in 1895 by Frederick William Lanchester who also patented the disc brake in the city. Electric vehicles were produced by a small number of manufacturers.
Innovation
Electric vehicle from the 1950s]]
The first automobile patent in the United States was granted to Oliver Evans in 1789; in 1804 Evans demonstrated his first successful self-propelled vehicle, which not only was the first automobile in the USA but was also the first amphibious vehicle, as his steam-powered vehicle was able to travel on wheels on land and via a paddle wheel in the water.
On November 5, 1895, George B. Selden was granted a United States patent for a two-stroke automobile engine (). This patent did more to hinder than encourage development of autos in the USA. A major breakthrough came with the historic drive of Bertha Benz in 1888. Steam, electric, and gasoline powered autos competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance in the 1910s.
1910s]
The large scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable automobiles was debuted by Oldsmobile in 1902, then greatly expanded by Henry Ford in the 1910s. Early automobiles were often referred to as 'horseless carriages', and did not stray far from the design of their predecessor. Through the period from 1900 to the mid 1920s, development of automotive technology was rapid, due in part to a huge (hundreds) number of small manufacturers all competing to gain the world's attention. Key developments included electric ignition and the electric self-starter (both by Charles Kettering, for the Cadillac Motor Company in 1910-1911), independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes.
By the 1930s, most of the technology used in automobiles had been invented, although it was often re-invented again at a later date and credited to someone else. For example, front-wheel drive was re-introduced by Andre Citroën with the launch of the Traction Avant in 1934, though it appeared several years earlier in road cars made by Alvis and Cord, and in racing cars by Miller (and may have appeared as early as 1897). After 1930, the number of auto manufacturers declined sharply as the industry consolidated and matured. Since 1960, the number of manufacturers has remained virtually constant, and innovation slowed. For the most part, "new" automotive technology was a refinement on earlier work, though these refinements were sometimes so extensive as to render the original work nearly unrecognizable. The chief exception to this was electronic engine management, which entered into wide use in the 1960s, when electronic parts became cheap enough to be mass-produced and rugged enough to handle the harsh environment of an automobile. Developed by Bosch, these electronic systems have enabled automobiles to drastically reduce exhaust emissions while increasing efficiency and power.
Model changeover and design change
exhaust
Cars are not merely continually perfected mechanical contrivances; since the 1920s nearly all have been mass-produced to meet a market, so marketing plans and manufacture to meet them have often dominated automobile design. It was Alfred P. Sloan who established the idea of different makes of cars produced by one firm, so that buyers could "move up" as their fortunes improved. The makes shared parts with one another so that the larger production volume resulted in lower costs for each price range. For example, in the 1950s, Chevrolet shared hood, doors, roof, and windows with Pontiac; the LaSalle of the 1930s, sold by Cadillac, used the cheaper mechanical parts made by the Oldsmobile division.
He also conceived of the notion of the yearly model change-over, which became a three-year cycle. In the second year of the cycle, the superficial appearance of the cars changed incidentally; for the third, major changes took place, e.g., the fender dies for the 1957 Chevrolet had to be modified to produce thin, pointed fins and squarish headlamp housings. In the next cycle, the doors, roof, trunk, and often the suspension would have to be redesigned. Factories and the yearly work schedule had to be specialized to accommodate these changeovers.
Such a patterns became dominant for the Big Three automakers in the US, though European firms neither amalgamated nor could afford the changeover. After the 1400s, when American firms tackled the technical problems of high-compression V8, automatic transmissions, and air conditioners, investment shifted to meeting the market for non-technical matters. This was criticized as "planned obsolescence," although by this it was meant that the car would simply be made to go out of style rather than really being technically surpassed. For example, only those few American cars of the 1960s with front-wheel drive or a rear engine had a fully independent rear suspension because the Hotchkiss drive was cheaper, and people were used to it. Such malinvestment left American firms unprepared for the Oil Crisis of the 1970s and the rise of imported luxury cars in the 1980s.
Regulation
In almost every nation, laws have been enacted governing the operation of motor vehicles. Most of this legislation, including limits on allowable speed and other rules of the road, are designed to ensure the smooth flow of traffic and simultaneously protect the safety of vehicle occupants, cyclists, and pedestrians.
In 1965, in the U.S. state of California, state legislation was introduced to regulate exhaust emissions, the first such legislation in the world. Answering this new interest in environmental and public safety issues, the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) both introduced legislation in 1968 which substantially altered the course of automotive development. Since the US market was the largest in the world (and California the largest market in the US), manufacturers worldwide were forced to adapt. For the first time, safety devices were mandatory, as were controls on harmful emissions. Prior to this legislation, even seat belts were considered extra-cost options by many manufacturers. Other countries followed by introducing their own safety and environmental legislation. In time, meeting regulations became the main challenge for the engineers designing new cars. In the decade from 1975 to 1985, the world's manufacturers struggled to meet the new regulations, some producing substandard cars with reduced reliability as a result. However, by the end of this period, everyone had learned how to handle the newly regulated environment. The manufacturers discovered that safety and environmentalism sold cars, and some began introducing environmental and safety advances on their own initiative.
Environmental improvements
The automobile was hailed as an environmental improvement over horses when it was first introduced. Before its introduction, in New York City, over 10,000 tons of manure had to be removed from the streets daily.
Among the first environmental advances are the so-called alternative fuels for the internal combustion engine, which have been around for many years. Early in automotive history, before gasoline was widely available at corner pumps, cars ran on many fuels, including kerosene (paraffin) and coal gas. Alcohol fuels were used in racing cars before and just after World War II. Today, methanol and ethanol are used as petrol extenders in some countries, notably in Australia and the United States. In countries with warmer climates, such as Brazil, alcohol derived from sugar cane is often used as a substitute fuel.
In many countries, plentiful supplies of natural gas have seen methane sold as compressed natural gas (CNG) and propane sold as liquified petroleum gas (LPG) alongside petrol and diesel fuels since the 1970s. While a standard automotive engine will run on these fuels with very low exhaust emissions, there are some performance differences, notably a loss of power due to the lower energy content of the alternative fuels. The need to equip filling stations and vehicles with pressurized vessels to hold these gaseous fuels and more stringent safety inspections, means that they are only economical when used for a long distance, or if there are installation incentives. They are most economical where petrol has high taxes and the alternative fuels do not.
Alternative fuels and batteries
With heavy taxes on fuel, particularly in Europe and tightening environmental laws, particularly in California, and the possibility of further restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, work on alternative power systems for vehicles continues.
Diesel-powered cars can run with little or no modification on 100% pure biodiesel, a fuel that can be made from vegetable oils. Many cars that currently use gasoline can run on ethanol, a fuel made from plant sugars. Most cars that are designed to run on gasoline are capable of running with 15% ethanol mixed in, and with a small amout of redesign, gasoline-powered vehicles can run on ethanol concentrations as high as 85%. All petrol fueled cars can run on LPG. There has been some concern that the ethanol-gasoline mixtures prematurely wear down seals and gaskets. Further, the use of higher levels of alcohol require that the automobile carry/use twice as much. Therefore, if your vehicle is capable of 300 miles on a 15-gallon tank, the efficiency is reduced to approximately 150 miles. Of course, certain measures are available to increase this efficiency, such as different camshaft configurations, altering the timing/spark output of the ignition, or simply, using a larger fuel tank.
In the United States, alcohol fuel was produced in corn-alcohol stills until Prohibition criminalized the production of alcohol in 1919. Brazil is the only country which produces ethanol-running cars, since the late 1970s.
Attempts at building viable battery-powered electric vehicles continued throughout the 1990s (notably General Motors with the EV1), but cost, speed and inadequate driving range made them uneconomical. Battery powered cars have used lead-acid batteries which are greatly damaged in their recharge capacity if discharged beyond 75% on a regular basis and NiMH batteries.
Current research and development is centered on "hybrid" vehicles that use both electric power and internal combustion. The first hybrid vehicle available for sale in the USA was the Honda Insight. As of 2005, The car is still in production and achieves around 60 mpg.
Other R&D efforts in alternative forms of power focus on developing fuel cells, alternative forms of combustion such as GDI and HCCI, and even the stored energy of compressed air (see Air Engine).
Safety
Automobiles were a significant improvement in safety on a per passenger mile basis, over the horse based travel that they replaced. Millions have been able to reach medical care much more quickly when transported by ambulance.
Accidents seem as old as automobile vehicles themselves. Joseph Cugnot crashed his steam-powered "Fardier" against a wall in 1770. The first recorded automobile fatality was Bridget Driscoll on August 17, 1896 in London and the first in the United States was Henry Bliss on September 13, 1899 in New York City.
Worldwide, every year more than a million people are killed and about 50 million people are wounded in collisions (according to WHO estimates). Cars also cause innumerable injuries and deaths among millions of animals (see roadkill). Major factors in accidents include the use of alcohol or other drugs, inattentiveness, the use of handheld mobile phones, tiredness, road hazards such as snow, potholes, and animals, and recklessness. Special safety features have been built into cars for years, some for the safety of car's occupants only, some for the safety of others.
Cars have two basic safety problems: They have human drivers who make mistakes, and the wheels lose traction near a half gravity of deceleration. Automated control has been seriously proposed and successfully prototyped. Shoulder-belted passengers could tolerate a 32G emergency stop (reducing the safe intervehicle gap 64-fold) if high-speed roads incorporated a steel rail for emergency braking. Both safety modifications of the roadway are thought to be too expensive by most funding authorities, although these modifications could dramatically increase the number of vehicles that could safely use a high-speed highway.
Early safety research focused on increasing the reliability of brakes and reducing the flammability of fuel systems. For example, modern engine compartments are open at the bottom so that fuel vapors, which are heavier than air, vent to the open air. Brakes are hydraulic so that failures are slow leaks, rather than abrupt cable breaks. Systematic research on crash safety started in 1958 at Ford Motor Company. Since then, most research has focused on absorbing external crash energy with crushable panels and reducing the motion of human bodies in the passenger compartment.
There are standard tests for safety in new automobiles, like the EuroNCAP and the [http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/testing/ncap/ US NCAP] tests. There are also tests run by organizations such as [http://www.hwysafety.org/ IIHS] and backed by the insurance industry.
Despite technological advances, there is still significant loss of life from car accidents: About 40,000 people die every year in the US, with similar trends in Europe. This figure increases annually in step with rising population and increasing travel, but the rate per capita and per mile travelled decreases steadily. The death toll is expected to nearly double worldwide by 2020. A much higher number of accidents result in injury or permanent disability.
Future of the car
There will always be a strong demand for the door-to-door, on-demand service but there are likely to be radical changes in the cars of the future.
- [http://www.dmv.org/ Department of Motor Vehicles]
- [http://www.automotivehistory.net/ A brief history of the automotive form]
- [http://www.autoweek.com/ Autoweek.com]
- [http://www.detnews.com/autosinsider/index.htm Auto Insider]
- [http://www.edmunds.com/ Edmunds.com]
- [http://www.kbb.com/ Kelley Blue Book]
- [http://www.hwysafety.org/ Insurance Institute for Highway Safety]
- [http://nhtsa.gov/ NHTSA.gov]
- [http://www.naftc.wvu.edu/ Alternative Fuel Vehicle Training]
- [http://supercarnews.com/ Car Images and Info]
- [http://www.netcarshow.com/ NetCarShow.com] - Archive of car pictures
- ko:자동차ms:Keretaja:自動車simple:Carth:รถยนต์
Under civil common law, negligence is an element of many non-intentional torts or wrongs that an individual suffers because of nonfeasance, misfeasance or malfeasance of another. As opposed to the common law tradition of most Anglo-American jurisdictions, in civil law legal systems (such as continental Europe, Quebec and Puerto Rico) negligence is classified as a form of extra-contractual responsibility called a quasi-delict (in distinction to the more willful delicts) within the conceptual framework of the law of obligations. The rules and elements are not the same as those set forth below under the Anglo-American common law tradition.
A lawsuit grounded in a claim of negligence might be brought, for example,
by someone injured in an auto accident against another driver who he felt caused the accident by being reckless or irresponsible.
:Note: unless otherwise stated, the rest of this section refers to negligence under common law (not criminal negligence) in the common law as practised in most of the jurisdictions of the United States.
Negligence in common law countries
Under law, negligence is usually defined in the context of
jury instructions wherein a judge instructs
the jury that a party is to be considered negligent if they failed
to exercise the standard of care that a reasonable person would have exercised under the same circumstances.
In most jurisdictions, it is necessary to show first that a person had
a duty to exercise care in a given situation, and that they breached that duty.
In brief: Negligence, a tort, is a civil wrong consisting of five criteria: Duty or reasonable standard of care (as decided by judge as a matter of law), Breach (or "negligence" in laymen's terms, decided as a matter of fact), Injury (the fact that the plaintiff suffered an injury, and is determined at a matter of fact), Cause in Fact or conduct of defendant that causes plaintiff's injury(s)(decided as a matter of fact), Legal Cause (now perceived as the foreseeability of the type of injury caused but not the specific injury or extent of injury, determined as a matter of fact). Matters of law are decided by a judge, matters of fact are decided by a jury.
In order to prove negligence, it is not necessary to prove harm, but
in order for a cause of action to rest in tort, harm must be proven.
Hence, it would be meaningless to sue someone for negligence if
no harm resulted.
Conversely, it is not enough that a harm was done.
In order for the harm to be compensable in a negligence lawsuit, the
defendant must be shown to have been negligent, and it must be
demonstrated that his negligence was the proximate cause of the harm
sustained by the plaintiff.
plaintiff in 1895.]]
Damages are awarded in proportion to the scope of the harm done, following the principle of restitutio in integrum (literally 'restoration to the original condition'). Thus the severity of the negligence is irrelevant. Still, some negligent acts are recognized as a matter of law to be so egregious as to merit financial penalty over and above actual damages, in order to reform the conduct of a malicious or callously indifferent defendant, and, by example, others similarly disposed. This is the purpose of punitive damages.
Such acts are rare, well-defined in the law of applicable
jurisdictions, and limited to the exact conditions of the law under which they may be awarded.
Only when the severity of negligence rises to an extreme level (and then, only when harm results from it) might it meet the standards required under laws providing for punitive damages.
Components of a negligence cause of action
A negligence lawsuit involves many components which need to be considered
before the success of the case can be determined.
Proving negligence is far more complicated than it may seem.
When considering a negligence cause of action there are six primary elements which need to be viewed and covered thoroughly: (1) duty, (2) breach of duty, (3) causation, (4) damage, (5) remoteness and (6) defences. Once this has been done an appropriate award of damages may be considered.
Duty
:see full article on duty of care
(1) The duty element is the legal requirement that the person being sued for negligence must adhere to a standard of conduct in protecting others from unreasonable risk of harm. The duty element may be considered a formalisation of the implicit responsibilities held by an individual towards another individual within society.
duty of cares of possibly dangerous products. Failure to do so could make the manufacturer liable for possible damages.]]
Different duties apply to different people.
- Parents have a duty to care for their children.
- Landlords have a duty to keep a residence habitable for their tenants.
- Each duty is applicable to the pertinent responsibility at hand.
- Professionals are held to a higher standard of care than the average person in society. These people take oaths in their professions and need to maintain that level of duty when they perform their professional activities.
Breach of duty
(2) Breaching that duty is the second element to a negligence lawsuit. The question to be asked is: Would a reasonable person in a similar situation have done the same thing as the defendant? If the question is answered in the affirmative, the defendant will not be found liable. If answered in the negative, the defendant may be absolved from liability only if the breach was not a direct cause of injury. To arrive at the conclusion both objective and subjective standards need to be considered.
- The objective standard of breach of duty only considers a hypothetical person and what their reasonable behaviour might be.
- The subjective standard considers the actual person being sued and if the jury thinks they acted reasonably in the matter at hand.
See also: calculus of negligence
Causation
(3) The causation of negligence is the third critical element of the lawsuit. There are actually two elements of causation that must be shown: actual cause (sometimes referred to as "cause in fact") and legal cause (sometimes referred to as "proximate cause").
(a) Cause in Fact
Actual cause asks the question of whether the person being sued, the defendant, was the actual cause of injuries sustained by the person initiating the lawsuit, the plaintiff. A "But-For Test" is generally employed which has four elements:
- Identify the injuries for which redress is sought;
- identify the wrongful conduct;
- mentally correct wrongful conduct to extent necessary to make it lawful, leaving everything else the same;
- ask whether the injuries would still have occurred if the defendant had acted correctly in this case.
(b) Proximate Cause
Proximate cause looks at the issue of foreseeability. When considering the event that has happened, it is asked whether or not
the injuries sustained were foreseeable or too remotely connected to the incident to even consider. Only reasonably foreseeable damage may be recovered by an action in negligence. This means that at the time the tort feasor committed the negligent act, it must have been reasonably foreseeable that damage of the same kind as the plaintiff suffered would ensue from it. The extent of the damage need not be foreseeable; and it matters not what the plaintiff in fact foresaw - the test is a purely objective one.
Damage
(4) Plaintiffs must have suffered damage - either physical (e.g. personal injury), economic (e.g. pure financial loss), or both (e.g. financial loss consequent on a personal injury) - from the negligent act if they are to have a cause of action against the tort feasor (note, however, under English law at least, and derivatives thereto, no cause of action arises save for in a number of 'special' and clearly defined circumstances where the damage is purely financial).
Defenses
(5) Notwithstanding that the plaintiff can prove elements (1) - (5) above, the tort feasor may have a complete or partial defence to the tort. Where the defence is complete, the plaintiff will be denied any remedy - i.e. damages (on damages see below) - by the Court. Where the defence is partial, the plaintiff's award of damages will be reduced to the extent of the partial defence.
A common complete defense is where the tortfeasor proves that the plaintiff consented either expressly or implicitly to the risk of damage. (In Latin, volenti non fit injuria. The plaintiff in such a case can be referred to as a 'volens'.) Another is where tort feasors can show that by a notice, sign or otherwise, they have validly excluded liability for the damage the plaintiff is seeking a remedy for.
Contributory negligence is an absolute defense under the common law. This is where the tort feasor proves that the plaintiff acted negligently and that this negligence contributed to the damage the plaintiff suffered from the tort feasor's negligent act. A simple example is where D's negligent driving caused P damage, but P's negligent driving also was a cause of that damage in part, in that, but for P's failure, his injuries would not have taken place or would not have been as severe as they in fact were. Where contributory negligence was proved, under the common law, the plaintiff would recover nothing. This doctrine has been widely criticized as draconian, in that a plaintiff whose fault was comparatively minor might recover nothing of a more egregiously irresponsible defendant. In most common law jurisdictions it has been replaced judicially or legislatively by the doctrine of comparative negligence (often still referred to as contributory negligence), under which the court will reduce the plaintiff's damages by the degree to which the plaintiff's own negligence contributed to his loss.
Additionally if the plaintiff is involved in wrongdoing himself at the time the alleged negligence occurred, it is possible that this might reduce the defendant's liability: ex turpi causa non oritur actio - no right of action arises from a despicable cause. There is much uncertainty concerning the application of the doctrine.
Damages
(6) Where plaintiffs prove (1) - (4) above, and the tortfeasor cannot prove a complete defence, they may recover damages (money) for their loss. It is the court that decides the amount of damages to be awarded.
Tortious damages are, in general, compensatory and not punitive in nature. This means that the award decided upon should be reflective only of the plaintiffs' actual loss - it should aim to compensate them fully for it, but not to punish the tortfeasor. The award should be sufficient so as to put the plaintiffs back in the position they were before the tort was committed, but must not go any further, otherwise the plaintiffs would actually benefit from the tort.
The plaintiff's award of damages may be comprised of the following heads of damage:
- Special damages - losses suffered from the date of the tort up until the date of trial and which can be precisely quantified in monetary terms.
- General damages - losses that cannot be quantified exactly in monetary terms (the actual pain suffering and loss of amenity caused by the negligent act come under this head of general damages), as well as expected future losses from the date of trial (e.g. loss of earnings).
In certain limited cases the court may depart from the compensatory principle relayed above and award punitive (also known as exemplary) damages in addition to general and special damages. This is usually done where the tortfeasor intentionally committed the tort for economic gain. The tortfeasor is then duly punished in this way in the hope that doing so will deter similar actions in the future both by the defendant and others.
Where the plaintiff's general or special damages are negligible or wholly unquantifiable the court may award nominal damages.
Legal procedures in negligence lawsuits
While most lawsuits are settled when a negligence lawsuit goes to trial, the judge will determine what the defendant's duty was to the plaintiff as a matter of law using the standard of reasonableness.
In the United States, if it is questionable what a reasonable person would do, a jury picked by the adversaries (plaintiff and defendant) will consider the facts and render a decision as well as determine the quantum of damages.
Sometimes the trier of fact will be the judge — this has been the case in England since the 19th century and is generally the case in the other Commonwealth countries.
Procedures and law in civil law jurisdictions
There are some differences in the law of negligence in civil law jurisdictions, but the basic rules above are also applied in these delict cases. In civil law jurisdictions the procedure is more akin to an investigation with investigative judges will interview all parties and witnesses and then prepare reports to be submitted to a panel of judges for final decision. That decision may also be appealed several levels through a judicial hierarchy.
Isserpent to miejscowość i gmina we Francji, w regionie Owernia, w departamencie Allier.
Według danych na rok 1990 gminę zamieszkiwało 511 osób, a gęstość zaludnienia wynosiła 19 osób/km² (wśród 1310 gmin Owernii Isserpent plasuje się na 400. miejscu pod względem liczby ludności, natomiast pod względem powierzchni na miejscu 279.).
Linki zewnętrzne
- Źródło danych: [http://www.insee.fr Insee]
- Mapy i zdjęcia satelitarne: [http://kvaleberg.com/extensions/mapsources/index.php?params=46_9_N_3_37_E_region:fr_type:city link do Wiki mapsources]
- Zdjęcie satelitarne: [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=46.15,3.61667&spn=0.1,0.1&t=k Google maps]
- Mapa: [http://maps.msn.com/(cgxnej455qpgxeu5vurxtejz)/map.aspx?&lats1=46.15&lons1=3.61667&alts1=14®n1=2 MSN World Atlas]
Kategoria:Miejscowości FrancjiKategoria:Departament Allier
U.S. Senate Committee on Claims
The United States Senate Committee on Claims was among the first standing committees established in the Senate. It dealt generally with issues related to private bills and petitions. After reforms in the 1880s that created judicial and administrative remedies for petitioners, it declined in importance, and was abolished in 1947.
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