Hypothetische Kausalität und Haftungsgrund

Should the defendant be relieved of liability for damages if some other hypothetical act or event would have led to the same result which occurred as a consequence of his actual conduct? 19th century German scholars established that damages should be assessed on the basis of the difference principle, which is in favor of relieving the defendant of liability in such a case. Since that time, the unsolved problem of hypothetical causation has been treated as a general damage issue rather than as a question of the reason for liability. In this work, Martin Gebauer develops a new approach. After outlining the various facets of this issue, which can be traced back to antiquity and were ignored for 150 years, he develops a solution which differentiates according to the specific reasons for liability. Some of these demand that the original right or obligation resulting from the action for damages be maintained, regardless of the hypothetical causes, and others allow hypothetical events to be taken into consideration.