La funzione della responsabilità civile: dalla compensazione alla punizione.

TITLE: CIVIL LIABILITY: FROM COMPENSATION TO PUNISHMENT ABSTRACT: The aim of the study is to show that civil liability, as well as other legal arrangements, has not any pre-defined function other than the one given by the legislature from time to time. Indeed, the function is nothing but a cost allocating criterion of assigning damage upon somebody. A criterion that, without any dogmatic consideration, only reflects the political decisions upon which the legal system is held. Therefore, the whole liability system, in this perspective, aims to achieve purposes that are outside the system itself. In order to achieve this goal, we have to overcome the traditional conception of liability, mostly considered as a form of compensation. The work is divided into 3 chapters. In the first one, we report the state of the art in terms of liability, concerning the Italian doctrine and legal practice, with a focus on its function, on the role of fault and on the so-called "punitive damages", to highlight the uselessness of some dogma that piled up over time. Afterwards we analyze the Anglo-American experience, in order to get new ideas and hints from a legal system which is much more linked to the practical side of the law and to a perspective focused on remedies. Finally, we develop our argument with a new economic analysis of civil liability, to end up with the last (until now) school of thought by Guido Calabresi with the instruments of "Law and Economics".