G. Comandé, International Juridical Overview on Personal Injury Compensation

In the last decades there has been increasing attention given to non-pecuniary component of damages. In a rich society it is possible to grant more legal rights, because there are more resources to dedicate to their protection. If the theory that the richer the society the wider the scope of compensation for non-pecuniary losses has some truth in it, it can certainly be found historically in the evolution of the assessment in case of ascertainable illnesses. This chapter explores the Anglo-American, the French and the Italian experiences in non-economic damages compensation, against the idea that non-pecuniary damages compensation is somehow a societal response to emerging legally protected interests. As far as compensation for non-economic harms in other instances, further research and analysis are required, although the growing societal explanation seems to be in line with an expanding attention to the mental state of the victims. © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2017