delict
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delict
the name used for civil liability for wrongs in Roman law and in Scots law and in the law of most of the civilian legal systems, such as those of France, Germany and South Africa. It is a much more universal concept than torts but clearly much the same sort of issues are considered. Again, in civilian systems, delict is seen within the overall picture of the law of obligations. See ANIMAL LIABILITY, ECONOMIC LOSS, ECONOMIC TORTS, FAULT, NEGLIGENCE, NUISANCE, OCCUPIER'S LIABILITY, PRODUCT LIABILITY, STRICT LIABILITY, TORT, TRESPASS.DELICT, civil law. The act by which one person, by fraud or malignity,
causes some damage or tort to some other. In its most enlarged sense, this
term includes all kinds of crimes and misdemeanors, and even the injury
which has been caused by another, either voluntarily or accidentally without
evil intention; but more commonly by delicts are understood those small
offences which are punished by a small fine or a short imprisonment.
2. Delicts are either public or private; the public are those which
affect the whole community by their hurtful consequences; the private is
that which is directly injurious to a private individual. Inst. 4, 18; Id.
4, 1 Dig. 47, 1; Id. 48, 1.
3. A quasi-delict, quasi delictum, is the act of a person, who without
malignity, but by an inexcusable imprudence, causes an injury to another.
Poth. Ob. n. 116; Ersk. Pr. Laws of Scotl. B. 4, t. 4, s. 1.