Dividing Wrongs: The Civilian Experience

Contrary to English law which (despite procedural divisions) has only ever had one class of civil wrongs, the civilian tradition, starting with Gaius, has typically split its law of wrongs into two, one group being called “delicts” and the other “quasi-delicts”. Yet this division remains mysterious: it is clear neither where the line was drawn nor why a separation was made along this line. This paper provides the sketch of an answer to both questions, looking at Roman law and its principal heir French law. It also attempts to examines what the common lawyer might learn of relevance to his own tradition from an observation of the civilian experience of dividing wrongs.