The Responsibility of the Animal Owners : Suggestions for Article718 of Civil law

Abstract

According to Article718 of Civil law in Japan, strict liability is imposed on the responsibility of the animal owners. This means that if an animal causes damage, the animal's owners should take the responsibility without any consideration of any mitigating circumstances, regardless of any fault that may lie with the victim. However, considering the recent pet boom and the coexistence and coprosperity of persons and animals in various fields, we must now consider situations that we could never have imagined at the time of the drafting of the original Civil law. So I believe it is time to adjust the relationship between persons, animals and laws. Therefore I consider in this article whether the definition of responsibilities in Article718 may be possible. In particular I examine whether the interpretation of Paragraph2 of Article833 of German Civil Codes could be adopted, which doesn't have the owner of domestic animals carry the strict liability, for guide dogs, which are indispensable to the lives of handicapped persons, or whether the legal principle of "assumption of risk" can be applied to the victim.