Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
Critical Infrastructure (CI) provision is characterized by privatization of CI providers, transnational risks and a changing role of the state. We describe two paradigmatic systems of state liability with a view to CI liability, namely Germany as a fault system and Switzerland as a strict liability system. Both are unsatisfactory and not well adapted to the modern realities and exigencies of allocation of risks and liability in CI and show flaws from a functional, incentive-based perspective. Therefore, we make suggestions how those systems may be ameliorated, suggesting organizational, design and supervisory liability reforms.
1 The EU Commission defines CI as follows: “Critical infrastructure is an asset or system which is essential for the maintenance of vital societal functions. The damage to a critical infrastructure, its destruction or disruption by natural disasters, terrorism, criminal activity or malicious behaviour, may have a significant negative impact for the security of the EU and the well-being of its citizens”, see EU Commission, “Critical infrastructure”, available on the internet at <http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/crisis-and-terrorism/critical-infrastructure/index_en.htm> (last accessed on 25 January 2015).
2 The term risk denotes the possibility that an undesirable state of reality (adverse effects) may occur as a result of human activity or natural events. Risk is conventionally defined as the harm of an event (effect) times the probability of this event. See Renn, Ortwin, Risk Governance. Coping with Uncertainty in a Complex World (London: Earthscan, 2008), at p. 1 Google Scholar. Those risks usually refer to hazards which are known and calculable due to past experiences, whereas uncertainty refers to hazards where no probability is known. See for a discussion in the context of risk governance van Asselt, Marjolein B.A., Vos, Ellen and Rooijackers, Bram, “Science, Knowledge and Uncertainty in EU Risk Regulation”, in Everson, Michelle and Vos, Ellen (eds.), Uncertain Risks Regulated (Abingdon: Routledge-Cavendish, 2009), 359 et sqq., at p. 360 etsqq.Google Scholar
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7 See the discussion in the articles of Eric Luiijf, “Governing Critical ICT: Elements that Require Attention” and Peter Burgherr, “Accidents in the energy sector and energy infrastructure attacks in the context of energy security”, in this issue.
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12 Adopted in 1986 following the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident, the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident (entered into force on 27 October 1986, 119 State Parties) establishes a notification system for nuclear accidents which have the potential for international transboundary release that could be of radiological safety significance for another State. It requires States to report the accident's time, location, radiation releases, and other data essential for assessing the situation. More importantly, liability is also regulated. In September 1997, governments took a significant step forward in improving the liability régime for nuclear damage. Over 80 States adopted a Protocol to amend the 1963 Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (capping private liability) and also adopted a Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (additional compensation by States). See for details of how to deal with disasters after they have occurred, but not considering liability issues, Caron, David D., Kelly, Michael J. and Telesetsky, Anastasia (eds.), The International Law of Disaster Relief (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13 Responsibility (Verantwortung) is the broader notion, it may also be political. Liability is a sub-form of responsibility, namely legal responsibility for the damage done (usually via restitution or damage payments). See e.g. Klement, Jan Henrik, Verantwortung:Funktion und Legitimation eines Begriffs im öffentlichen Recht (Tübingen: Siebeck/Mohr 2006)Google Scholar. In international law, the terms liability and responsibility are used differently. Responsibility follows from wrongful acts whereas liability is the term used for liability even if there was no internationally wrongful conduct, e.g. liability for damage caused by space objects.
14 Thompson, supra note 8, at p. 261.
15 German “Staatshaftungsgesetz” of 26 June 1981, BGBl I, at p. 553.
16 German Federal Constitutional Court BVerfGE 61, at p. 149 etsqqq. Unconstitutionality was found due to the missing competence in the Basic Law of the federal level (the federal level competence is subsidiary to the state level). Although the competence article was changed afterwards, hitherto, no new law has been passed. The German Democratic Republic, in contrast, had a state liability law since 1969 which, similar to the Swiss law, discarded with the necessity of fault.
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73 BGHZ, 27 January 1994 - III ZR 109/92, para. 24. § 8 sent. 1 HKatSG states that the agencies have to guarantee an efficient protection against catastrophes.
74 BGHZ, 15 February 1979, - III ZR 108/76 -, BGHZ 74, 144, 156; permanent legal practice. This should also be an absolute requirement under Swiss law, contrary to the current jurisdiction of the Swiss Supreme Court under the objective illegality theory.
75 For Germany: BGHZ, 21 October 2004 - III ZR 254/03. For Switzerland: Wildhaber, supra note 36, p. 410 et sqq.; Bern Association of Administrative Jurisdictions, 18.3.2004 (VGE 21 657/VGE 21234), (BVR/JAB, 2005) at p. 3, consid. 5.
76 This is e.g. practiced in the IT industry for open source software. See on the embeddedness and thus crucial function of IT technology as a CI sector for all other CI sectors, Luiif and Klaver, “Governing Critical ICT: Elements that Require Attention”, in this issue.
77 For details, including case studies from the US, where design responsibility was faulty, see Thompson, supra note 8.
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82 Another paper in this special issue “Private Liability and Critical Infrastructure” critically discusses the nuclear liability conventions from that perspective, see Michael Faure, XXX.
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85 Wildhaber, supra note 36, p. 410 et sqq.
86 See for details, Marjolein van Asselt, Ellen Vos and Isabelle Wildhaber, “Some Reflections on EU Governance of Critical Infrastructure Risks”, in this issue.