Postclassical Understanding of Causation in Law: Civil and Criminal Liability

Abstract

Causation is the most difficult legal issue. For every theory of causation, there is a case that breaks it. Meanwhile, doctrinal disputes are aggravated by the increasingly complicated contradictions of judicial practice in civil and criminal cases. Attorneys tend to give the matter of causal link between the behavior of the offender and the resulting consequences to experts, thereby shifting their responsibility for resolving the legal issue (corpus delicti). Researchers still refuse to use the achievements of postclassic philosophy in legal causation. Even modern publications often feature out-of-date examples and arguments that postulate necessity and objectivity of legal causality. The author used the postclassical theory of law to illustrate the structure of the causal relationship for legal responsibility. The present article covers various issues of terminology, discrepancies, causality and guilt, casuistry and its formalities, common sense, etc. Based on the latest domestic and foreign research in civil and criminal law, the key thesis reads as follows: "a causal relationship is a legal construct".