Alcohol provider liability, will such a regulation be adopted in Sweden ?
(2005)Department of Law
- Abstract
- This thesis discusses the concept of alcohol provider liability. This more recent form of liability has become a popular tool when dealing with alcohol related accidents and aims to make alcohol providers, whether of commercial or private nature, liable for irresponsible service to their patrons or guests. Such liability, in its present form, is regulated either by statute or by common law principles of negligence law. Originally, such liability was mainly aimed at commercial providers of alcohol. Today however, all kinds of groups are being targeted, the most controversial of these being private persons who serve alcohol at their homes. Interestingly enough, alcohol provider liability is of yet only a phenomenon underway in North America... (More)
- This thesis discusses the concept of alcohol provider liability. This more recent form of liability has become a popular tool when dealing with alcohol related accidents and aims to make alcohol providers, whether of commercial or private nature, liable for irresponsible service to their patrons or guests. Such liability, in its present form, is regulated either by statute or by common law principles of negligence law. Originally, such liability was mainly aimed at commercial providers of alcohol. Today however, all kinds of groups are being targeted, the most controversial of these being private persons who serve alcohol at their homes. Interestingly enough, alcohol provider liability is of yet only a phenomenon underway in North America and to some extent in Australia whereas in Sweden, such a concept is still unheard of. Instead of the system of torts, which appears to be one of the reigning methods by which accident victims are compensated in North America, in Sweden, personal injures arising out of alcohol related accidents are compensated by means of social security benefits and insurance coverage. The tort system is in other words a secondary source of compensation. The approaches taken to combat alcohol related accidents in these two parts of the world can thus be said to be very different. These differences depend on both legal and cultural disparities. Legally, the tort system of the United States is built upon an entirely different system when compared with the system of torts in Sweden. Damage awards are much greater, plaintiffs and defendants have nothing to loose by going to court, lawyers are much more prone to drive a claim seeing as their fee will be based on the success of the claim, and other sources of compensation are few. Culturally, the view on alcohol has always been more conservative in the United States with several groups constantly lobbying for a stricter alcohol policy. Even our view on the tort system differs. Whereas Americans have begun to increasingly rely on and exploit the tort system, in Sweden, tort law for personal injuries is in one sense becoming a concept of the past with alternative compensation schemes and social security taking over. Apart from a comparative analysis to illustrate the reasons for the different approaches taken, these approaches can even be analyzed from an economical perspective. Here theories of economics can be applied on both the American system of alcohol provider liability and on the Swedish system of social security, paid for by way of taxes, to demonstrate how accident costs ultimately can be reduced. No system of regulation is perfect. Whereas we may believe the American system of alcohol provider liability to be too harsh, the Americans may envy our elaborate system of compensation but criticise our approach in that it merely compensates but fails to deter irresponsible and negligent behaviour. Whatever the views may be, there will often be national reasons behind why countries choose different approaches when regulating the same issue. Even if Sweden, in other areas of tort law, has taken after American models of regulation, it would surprise me greatly if we were to go so far as to adopt such a regulation as that of alcohol provider liability seeing the controversial nature of such a regulation as well as the many differences in our two society's. (Less)
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http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1555503
- author
- af Jochnick, Anna
- supervisor
- organization
- year
- 2005
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- Skadeståndsrätt
- language
- English
- id
- 1555503
- date added to LUP
- 2010-03-08 15:55:15
- date last changed
- 2010-03-08 15:55:15
@misc{1555503,
abstract = {{This thesis discusses the concept of alcohol provider liability. This more recent form of liability has become a popular tool when dealing with alcohol related accidents and aims to make alcohol providers, whether of commercial or private nature, liable for irresponsible service to their patrons or guests. Such liability, in its present form, is regulated either by statute or by common law principles of negligence law. Originally, such liability was mainly aimed at commercial providers of alcohol. Today however, all kinds of groups are being targeted, the most controversial of these being private persons who serve alcohol at their homes. Interestingly enough, alcohol provider liability is of yet only a phenomenon underway in North America and to some extent in Australia whereas in Sweden, such a concept is still unheard of. Instead of the system of torts, which appears to be one of the reigning methods by which accident victims are compensated in North America, in Sweden, personal injures arising out of alcohol related accidents are compensated by means of social security benefits and insurance coverage. The tort system is in other words a secondary source of compensation. The approaches taken to combat alcohol related accidents in these two parts of the world can thus be said to be very different. These differences depend on both legal and cultural disparities. Legally, the tort system of the United States is built upon an entirely different system when compared with the system of torts in Sweden. Damage awards are much greater, plaintiffs and defendants have nothing to loose by going to court, lawyers are much more prone to drive a claim seeing as their fee will be based on the success of the claim, and other sources of compensation are few. Culturally, the view on alcohol has always been more conservative in the United States with several groups constantly lobbying for a stricter alcohol policy. Even our view on the tort system differs. Whereas Americans have begun to increasingly rely on and exploit the tort system, in Sweden, tort law for personal injuries is in one sense becoming a concept of the past with alternative compensation schemes and social security taking over. Apart from a comparative analysis to illustrate the reasons for the different approaches taken, these approaches can even be analyzed from an economical perspective. Here theories of economics can be applied on both the American system of alcohol provider liability and on the Swedish system of social security, paid for by way of taxes, to demonstrate how accident costs ultimately can be reduced. No system of regulation is perfect. Whereas we may believe the American system of alcohol provider liability to be too harsh, the Americans may envy our elaborate system of compensation but criticise our approach in that it merely compensates but fails to deter irresponsible and negligent behaviour. Whatever the views may be, there will often be national reasons behind why countries choose different approaches when regulating the same issue. Even if Sweden, in other areas of tort law, has taken after American models of regulation, it would surprise me greatly if we were to go so far as to adopt such a regulation as that of alcohol provider liability seeing the controversial nature of such a regulation as well as the many differences in our two society's.}},
author = {{af Jochnick, Anna}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Alcohol provider liability, will such a regulation be adopted in Sweden ?}},
year = {{2005}},
}