Civil Liability Caused by Damage to Personality A Comparative study of Imamiyah Jurisprudence, Iran and English law

Abstract

Although the human personality and dignity are respected in all legal systems and under certain conditions, a criminal liability has been determined for damaging it, civil liability caused by damage to personality has been payed less attention especially in Iranian Law. On this basis, the main issue in this article is studying the institution of civil liability, its conditions and criteria and methods of compensation in Iran jurisprudence and law and its comparison with the English Law. The research method is a descriptive-analytic and comparative one. Civil liability caused by damage to personality is studied under the general heading of "desecration" in Imamiyah jurisprudence and Iran law, and under the heading of "defamation" in English law. The criteria for defamation in English law is "lowering the reputation from a right-thinking member view of society" and the criteria for desecration in Iran law and Imamiyah jurisprudence is "damage to the personality". The conditions of liability are different in these systems based on these two criteria. In English law, unlike law of Iran, compensation for defamation is usually financial, the amount of which is determined by the court.

Keywords

• personality
• desecration
• defamation
• civil liability
• moral damages