The new Belgian Law of Delict – Taking the Temperature of Emerging Tendencies

With its entry into force on 1 January 2025, the new Belgian Law of Delict is the most recently reformed system of delictual liability. Thereby, the Belgian legislature has outpaced the French reform project, which still is a work in progress. To get a better understanding of emerging tendencies in the comparative law of delict, Senior Research Fellow Tom Hick invited a number of Belgian early career scholars – who have followed the process of the reform closely – to present on some of the most topical aspects of the reformed law of delict. 

Four topics were chosen and presented upon, in each case supplemented by a comparative German and French perspective that was given, respectively by Jonathan Friedrichs of the MPI and Valentin Pinel le Dret, former Institute research fellow and now a practising lawyer in Paris. After each presentation, the floor was opened to comments and queries from the audience. Among those posing questions was Professor Reinhard Zimmermann, emeritus Director at the Institute, who also opened the conference with a welcoming address.

In terms of the speakers, first, Professor Françoise Auvray (Université libre de Bruxelles) and Simon Van Eekert (KU Leuven) presented a general outline of Belgian personal liability law, including a focus on the preventive dimension of the reform. 

Then, Stefaan Declercq (Solvo Legal/KU Leuven) explained how the concurrence of extra-contractual and contractual liability was dealt with in the reform project, with special attention paid to the liability of an execution agent. 

After the break, Christopher Borucki (KU Leuven) provided an overview of the way in which causality is understood under Belgian law, considering in particular how some specific issues of causality are solved. In this context, he also talked about the loss of a chance and proportional liability. 

Lukas Van Roy (KU Leuven), finally, elaborated on the liability of parents for their children, the personal liability of children, and the power to mitigate damages for harm caused by children.

Tom Hick concluded briefly with some observations on the notion of harm in the reformed law of delict, describing how it provides a wealth of material for future comparative research, much like the whole of the Belgian reform. Both for the audience, on the one hand, and for the speakers, on the other hand, the afternoon provided ample room for fruitful and enriching comparative discussions that were informally continued and expanded upon during the coffee break and the dinner that followed.

Photograph: © Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law / Anja Hell-Mynarik