Appraising the Preventive Effect of Tort Law and Safety Regulation in Hazardous activities

Although compensation is the main purpose of tort law with respect to to the injured, it is not the sole purpose and along with this main goal; Tort law can also be effective to deter the injurers and prevent the future accident. Due to the reactive and ex- post nature of tort law, its failure to achieve prevention and the importance of proactive (ex ante) and preventive measures, especially in the ultra hazardous activities and mass torts, some scholars believe that through other methods such as safety regulation and regulatory rules, the preventive purpose can be better achieved. That is why today in many legal systems, preventive measures through public law and enactment of safety regulation to secure the safety of citizens, has became an effective tool for the management of hazardous activity. In this paper we have tried to assess the function of these two legal tools for the prevention of dangerous activities. Our study shows that in addition to tort law failures to prevent the hazardous activity, regulation has also some deficiencies and this has made it inevitable to employ both of them in many cases.