Unjustified Enrichment and Civil Liability
Résumé
At first glance, there is nothing in the Projet de réforme de la responsabilité civile which invites an analysis of the relationship between unjustified (or unjust) enrichment and civil liability. Indeed, the Projet does not contain any reference to unjustified enrichment or, to put it in a more French way, quasi-contracts. By contrast, the drafters of the reform project have devoted substantial effort to reframing the relationship between contractual and extra-contractual liability. This imbalance is not surprising, and is reflected in the work of legal scholars: while there is an abundant literature that considers the relationship between contractual and ‘tortious’ liability, there is little work on the relationship between unjustified enrichment and civil liability. Even more unusual is trying to compare the French law of unjustified enrichment with the law of civil liability in another legal system, and this is exactly what this chapter aims to do by comparing French and English law (with occasional references made to German law too).