IL MITO DELLA CAUSALITÀ OMISSIVA. PROFILI GIURIDICO-NORMATIVI, SEMANTICI ED EPISTEMICI.

In my thesis I elaborate an analysis of the criteria by means of which in law practice we ascribe a causal role to omissive conducts. This analysis aims to enlighten the foundations of the responsibility arising as a consequence of the occurring of harmful events in the case of an omission as the person held accountable’s only conduct. My theoretic proposal is based on conceptual tools mainly offered by semantics and epistemology of causation. The role played by the above mentioned criteria is to determine the content of the conducts people in peculiar positions are compelled to hold in virtue of the norms prescribing to them to prevent specific harmful events. We can identify two types of criteria: 1. Criteria concerning the hypothetical reasoning by means of which it is verified if an instance of a certain kind of action would have prevented the harmful event at stake; 2. Criteria ruling the application of the concepts of dolus and negligence, concerning respectively the omitting agent’s knowledge and knowability about the detrimental event and the patterns of the behaviours which are apt to avert that particular event.