Immunity from the Civil Liability of Parents against Children in Iran and English Laws

The history and evolution of civil liability of parents against their children in Iran and England’s legal systems indicate the acceptance of absolute discretion for parents regarding their children to such an extent that unconditional power of parents over the lives of their children could be put forward from a historical perspective. The result of that historical approach in the field of civil liability was parents’ immunity from civil liability, which is called "the parents’ immunity rule from civil liability against their children". However, as time passed and changes occurred in the field of tort law, history underwent a new chapter, and parents’ immunity rule from civil liability against their children was altered from its absolute and unconditional form so that children could be covered and supported by individual rights; consequently, its special protections and immunity turned into liability in numerous cases. This research demonstrates that in the current law, civil liability of parents against their children has progressed from being "personal" to the "collective" civil liability and even to the "state compensation" stage for damages incurred by children. In our legal system, along with the use of progressive views of Islamic jurisprudence in regard with "Zaman Aqele (liability of the male members of
families)", part of which includes liability of Jarire and compensation by relatives and compensation by the Islamic treasury (or Beytolmal) as well, which is compensation by the government, a new viewpoint has been established toward compensation through social contracts such as insurance and social security, on the one hand, and the government, on the other. Therefore, the legislator can hold the government responsible by formation of “Civil Liability Insurance Funds” through enacting the required law for the events in which there are no sources of compensation or legal bases of financial capability for compensation. This paper illustrates the fact that the scope of the mentioned rule has been widely reduced in English law, and also the fact that its exceptional application has been accepted in Iranian law. Hence, it can be said that the rule of “parents’ immunity from civil liability” has moved out from its absolute form and has entered the history of law.