论美国侵权法中的公共侵扰

公共侵扰是英美法中的特有类型,原被限制在公力救济的范围内,是由多数本属刑法处理的小罪的总和,后逐渐发展至允许受有特殊损害的被害人提起私人侵权之诉。工业革命前,公共侵扰侵权的应用被谨慎地限制在不动产和公共权利的范围内,行为人承担责任以其对行为有控制能力为前提。这种限制在工业文明之后被突破。在环保运动背景之下,公共侵扰侵权责任的重心发生了戏剧性的转移,不再是本源上作为消除有害行为的强制手段,而演变为一种新的进行损害赔偿的“权宜之计”。

Public Nuisance in American Law of Tort

As a typical type in British and American law and originally confined to the relief of public force,public nuisance was the combination of petty crimes and gradually allowed victims suffered from special harms to file a lawsuit of private tort.Before the Industrial Revolution,public nuisance torts claims were prudently limited in the real-estate-related or public-right-related cases.At that time the defendant can control the harmful conduct was still a condition precedent of tort liability.But after the Industrial Revolution,there was a dramatic evolvement of the public nuisance tort.It became a "stopgap" measure to distribute damages in the background of environmental movement,rather then a compulsive measure to eliminate harmful conduct.