Journal of Research and Development in Comparative Law

Journal of Research and Development in Comparative Law

Tendency to Tolerance: A Comparative Study of Cultural Factors Affecting the Passivity of Injury Victims in a Tort Action

Document Type : scientific research paper

Authors
Abbas Mirshekari 1
Mona Abdi 2
Nafiseh Maleki 3
1 Associate prof. of Private Law, Faculty of Law & Political Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
2 Ph. D in Private Law, Faculty of Law, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
3 Ph. D Candidate in private Law, Faculty of Law & Political Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
10.22034/law.2024.2044190.1475
Abstract
Tort law has multiple goals, including full compensation for damages, restoring the injured party to his pre-tort position, achieving justice and fairness, preventing private and personal revenge, preventing damage and deterring violations, and many other things. The prerequisite for achieving these goals is for the injured party to file a lawsuit. Without initiating lawsuits and demanding compensation from the injured parties, none of the goals of the tort system in different countries could be achieved. However, sometimes, due to certain factors, the injured parties refrain from initiating a lawsuit and choose to remain silent, bearing the costs incurred as a result of the loss themselves. The tendency of the injured parties to tolerate and not file a lawsuit is known as "victim passivity", has been introduced in some studies as a "universal assumption" and is considered as one of the problems afflicting tort systems due to its adverse effects. This tendency can be caused by various factors and can be examined from various legal, cultural, sociological and psychological perspectives. One of these important aspects is taking into consideration cultural components.In fact, a large part of the influential institutions in legal issues, especially in the field of tort law and laws relating to damages, have cultural dimensions that had remained largely unknown until a few years ago. Using library studies, this article attempts to identify the most important cultural components affecting this phenomenon through a comparative analytical approach, among legal, literary, sociological works and analysis of news and available data. The findings of this article show that the existence of some subcultures, including "fatalism", "belief in the fairness of the world", "tolerance and compromise", and "blaming the victim", play a very effective role in this regard, traces of which are clearly visible in Iranian culture, though one cannot be sure that such tendencies would continue in the future.
Keywords
Fatalism
Blaming the Injured Party
Fairness of the World
Tolerance and Compromise

Subjects

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