Contract Law, Liability, and Privacy

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and definitions related to contract law, breach of contract, termination, liability, torts, consumer protection, product liability, artificial intelligence, and privacy, according to the provided lecture notes.

Non-performance

The failure of the debtor to fulfill/carry out the performance due, the delay in performance, or the incorrect performance thereof.

Effects of Delay

Compensation for damages, shifting of risk.

Synallagma

Mutual and reciprocal services in a contract.

Faced with breach of contract…

You can demand FULFILLMENT (maintenance of the contract) or RESOLUTION.

Exception of non-performance

A party may refuse to perform if the other party fails or fails to offer to perform without delay.

Notice / Invitation to perform

Written intimation/invitation to perform within a time limit sent to the other party.

Specific termination clause

Contractual clause covering a specific non-performance; no need for serious breach.

Essential Term

Expiration of an essential term makes performance useless for the other party; contract automatically terminates.

Termination due to supervening impossibility

Contracts with mutual consideration where one performance becomes IMPOSSIBLE due to a cause not attributable to the contracting debtor.

Supervening Impossibility during Debtor's Delay

If impossibility occurs during delay, the debtor is still required to pay damages and is not released.

Partial and temporary impossibility

If the impossibility is only partial and temporary, the other party is entitled to a corresponding reduction in performance.

Termination for undue hardship

Termination due to excessive burden arising after the conclusion of the contract.

Article 1218 c.c. - liability of the debtor

Debtor is liable for damages UNLESS the non-performance or delay was caused by impossibility of performance resulting from a cause beyond his control.

Sources of obligations

Obligations arise from contract, tort, or any other act/fact capable of producing them in accordance with the legal system.

Tort

A source of obligation between people who do NOT already have a pre-existing obligatory relationship among them.

The functions of civil liability

Compensatory function, Sanction function, Preventive function.

Article 2043 - Compensation in tort

ANY intentional or negligent act that causes unjust damage to others obliges the one who committed it to compensate for the damage

Dolo/Intention

Intentional: act directed to cause harm.

Fault

The damaging event occurs due to negligence, imprudence or inexperience, or also failure to comply with laws, regulations, orders or discipline.

Imputability

Capacity to understand and will.

Joint and Several Liability

Those who have jointly contributed to causing the damage are jointly and severally liable.

Contributory negligence of the injured party

Damages may be reduced OR excluded when the injured party’s negligence or recklessness contributed to causing the damage.

Compensation of damages by equivalent

A sum of money equal to the patrimonial difference (before and after the tort).

Specific form compensation

Repair/restoration of reality to the previous situation.

Strict Liability

Liability regardless of fault or intention.

Liability of masters and principals

Masters and principals are liable for damages caused by the wrongful act of their servants and domestics, which are committed in the performance of the duties to which they are assigned.

Unjust damage

Conduct that goes against a right AND should not otherwise be justified by the system.

Legitimate Defense

Who causes harm in self-defense of himself or others is not liable.

State of Necessity

When the person who did the harmful act was compelled to do so by the necessity of saving himself or others from the present danger of serious personal injury.

Extra-contractual liability

It is up to the injured party to prove all the elements of liability, particularly the fault of the injurer.

Contractual liability burden of proof

Debtor to prove that the non-performance resulted from causes not attributable to him.

Compensability of damage resulting from infringement of credit rights

Damage that infringes on a person’s credit rights is also considered unjust.

Formal protection

The freedom of contract is whether or not to enter into the contract.

Substantial protection

From the imbalance of contractual strength between the parties TO the imbalance of the content of the contract.

Consumer

The natural person who concludes a contract with a purpose unrelated to any professional or business activity eventually carried out by him.

Professional

The natural/legal person who concludes a contract included in his professional or entrepreneurial sphere/business or an intermediary thereof.

Unfair/Unbalanced/Vessatory

Clauses that result in a significant imbalance in the consumer’s rights and obligations under the contract.

The main consumer protection

The one that goes to affect the actual content of the contract entering on the SUBSTANTIAL PLAN is the REGULATION OF UNFAIR TERMS that are affected by relative nullity.

Relative Nullity

A type that can ONLY be invoked by the injured party = the consumer.

Black List

Clauses that subject to specific and individual negotiations, are always null and void.

Grey List

Clauses which are presumed to be vexatious/unfair, always subject to proof to the contrary.

Pre-contractual information requirements

Before being bound by a contract the consumer shall be informed of certain information to allow them to make an informed choice.

Right of withdrawal

A tool that EU law gives to the consumer to cancel, without providing any justification, the contract within 14 days after they received the goods.

Unfair Contract Terms Directive

Protects consumers against unfair standard terms which create in contracts between a consumer and a trader a significant imbalance between the rights and obligations of the parties, to the detriment of the consumer.

Plurality of consumer protections: information duties

Requires that consumers be guaranteed full disclosure by introducing enhanced disclosure, transparency and good faith obligations.

Product Liability

the dominant principle is that producers are liable irrespective of fault for damage caused by defective products they put into circulation.

Control of a dangerous thing

The producer is no longer the keeper of the product when this person has put it into circulation and the damage occurs.

Protection against the risks inherent in industrial production; and enterprise liability

The purchaser needs special protection against the special risks of anomalies associated with industrial mass production.

Risk community; insurance

If the producer serves as clearing house for all damages caused by its products, the producer can pass on all the compensation cost to the clients in general, who are the ones who take advantages from the product themselves.

Defect

When a product does not provide the safety that consumers generally are entitled to expect taking account of all of the circumstances, including the product’s get up and presentations and its expected use.

Development Risk

Exclusion of liability because the state of knowledge, at the time the product was put into circulation, did not allow the product to be perceived as defective.

Defective Product

Product that does not offer the average safety that the consumer can expect.

An unsafe' product

The product does not meet the safety requirements.

Manufacturers Control

Includes software and related service.

Series of Presumptions

The law presumes the defective character of the product, the causal link between defect and damage, or both of these elements

AI System

a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments. Different AI systems vary in their levels of autonomy and adaptiveness after deployment.

AI ACT

World's first AI law: not mere recommendations: Introduces a normative definition of AI.

AI ACT

New model that places the attempt to balance IA development and person-centrality. A sustainability perspective.

AI system

An automated system designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and which may exhibit adaptability after deployment and which, for explicit or implicit purposes, deduces from the input it receives how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that may affect physical or virtual environments.

AI Act's Risk-Based Discipline

Identified 4 categories defined by potential risks to fundamental rights: Unacceptable risk, High risk, Minimal risk, Risk Lack of Information/Transparency.

Ques:on/key point

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY IA SYSTEMS? TWO MAJOR RELATED ISSUES: The possible subjectivity of the AI system; (preliminary question) The possible cases of liability applicable to IA: assumptions and limitations

Conclusions on product resp.

Trend toward … a broadening of the product concept, Less static and more dynamic accountability: product that evolves; Awareness of the peculiarity of digital technologies.

Privacy

The right to control access to one’s personal information.

Right to be Left Alone

Individuals should have control over their personal space, decisions, and information, and should be free from unwanted intrusions, whether by the government, companies, or even other individuals.

Right to privacy

Right to a private life, free from intrusion or surveillance.

Data protection

Rules and safeguards governing how information that identifies individuals is collected and handled.

Personal Data

Any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person

Processing

Any operation performed on personal data

Data Controller

Entity that determines the purposes and means of processing.

Data Processor

Entity that processes data on behalf of the controller

Accountability Principle

requires that organizations NOT ONLY comply with the GDPR, BUT ALSO be able to demonstrate their FULL COMPLIANCE with principles and objectives of the Regulation