Haftung und Kompensation bei Straßenverkehrsunfällen

Traffic accidents are one of the »necessary evils« in modern life. In order to deal with the often non-reversible situation created by such accidents, lawmakers had to come up with approaches to ensure the compensation for injuries and damage caused by these accidents. The New Zealand legislator took a unique approach by creating the Accident Compensation Scheme as a measure to ensure the compensation for personal injuries caused by an accident. The German legislator, however, relies on a system combining strict liability with a compulsory third party liability insurance for motor vehicles. Kerstin Rohde provides an analysis of the differences and similarities between the approaches taken by the German and the New Zealand legislator concerning the conditions of entitlement to damages, the amount of damages and benefits possible and the enforcement of an entitlement under these two systems.