The Annual Conference on European Tort Law
The 24th Annual Conference will be held in Vienna from April 24 to 25, 2025 in the Festive Hall of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna). It provides a unique opportunity for both practitioners and academics to discover the most significant tort law developments from across Europe in 2024. Experts from each of the many jurisdictions present selected highlights from their contributions to the European Tort Law Yearbook, an annual volume which provides a comprehensive overview of legislative and judicial developments in tort law throughout Europe during the preceding year. (The Yearbook ‘European Tort Law 2024’ will be published in autumn 2025.) The national reports are followed by an overview of EU law developments and a comparative, concluding summary, which critically assesses the most important trends and issues to emerge. A special session is dedicated to the topic of "Forever chemicals – PFAS and tort law".
PFAS, commonly referred to as ‘forever chemicals’, are challenging from a tort law perspective. In particular, the question under which circumstances a person exposed to PFAS suffers harm that can be compensated on the basis of tort law causes difficulties in different jurisdictions. Factual uncertainties and longtime exposure add to the complexity, especially with regard to causation and prescription. The Special Session will address these issues from a comparative perspective. After a general introduction by Stephanie Nitsch (University of Vienna), Albert Ruda (University of Girona) will focus on the question of harm, Maria Lee (University College London) will deal with causation and Corinne Widmer Lüchinger (University of Basel) will address prescription.