A variety of institutional mechanisms are used by society to control the risks generated by hazardous activities :
- regulation, in which the state imposes restrictions on hazardous activities,
- liability regimes, which attempt to ensure that firms have appropriate incentives to avoid accidents by requiring them to compensate victims of their activity,
- soft law and self-regulation approaches, which aim to establish voluntary standards of behavior which improve safety,
- insurance, a risk-sharing mechanism which ensures that victims are compensated for the monetary component of a loss.
The first chapter of this Cahier de la sécurité industrielle presents issues related to regulation, starting with the classical economic justifications for state intervention. The second chapter presents an overview of liability law and some factors which weaken the effectiveness of liability as an incentive to invest in prevention.
Chapter 3 discusses the impact of insurance and reinsurance on firms' and individuals' safety management. And the last chapter briefly analyzes firms and individuals' sources of motivation to take care.
Objectives
Understand the complementarity and antagonisms between liability rules, safety regulation and insurance and their effect on safety management.
About the author
Eric Marsden holds a PhD in dependable computing from LAAS-CNRS in Toulouse. His work at Foncsi (Fondation pour une culture de sécurité industrielle) concerns the management of research projects concerning risk management and industrial safety.