The Basis of Employer’s Liability in English law

Abstract

SummaryVicarious liability is a liability for misconduct committed by others; liability of employer for his employees' wrongdoing is the current application for this liability which had started as a liability for all those can the liable person controls their conduct such as his family.Despite of being acceptable in the common law, this sort of liability has lacked the agreeable and undisputable rationale which can legally justify imposing this liability. The main obstacle which all justifications have confronted with is that this liability is imposed regardless any fault or negligence in the part of employer, this distinguishing characteristic apparently conflicts with the foundations of tort law which is fault-based.In this paper, the authors will discuss the absence of agreeable basis of vicarious liability and try to offer a solution. But first, the historical background of this kind of liability should be reviewed, this will help to understand rationales which were offered during the historical periods, second the research will try to analyze current theories according to which scholars try to justify imposing this liability so that we can find the reason of their failure in giving an acceptable reason for imposing vicarious liability.