Compensation funds: their nature, function and legality.

The Belgian legislator is creating a rapidly growing number of compensation funds. Such funds provide full or partly compensation to victims of accidents, regardless whether or not their damage is imputable to someone else's fault. They are founded because of perceived gaps of coverage, or shortfalls in compensation, offered by the three other traditional sources of compensation, i.e. tort law, private insurance and social security. It is hard not to see the many advantages of compensation funds; a.o. they offer compensation without heavy burdens of proof to victims in an easy, fast and more administrative way, out of court. Compensation funds however seem to be a kind of deus ex machina. In view of their success, they surprisingly have not been the subject of any overall, critical analysis. Hence, this research project sets out to determine and assess their nature, function and legality, with a view of developing consistent touchstones for the organisation of current and future funds. More precisely, the project will investigate the accordance of compensation funds in the light of human rights, i.e. the right of access to justice and of non-discrimination(legality). Moreover, it will be investigated whether compensation funds fulfil their objectives, i.e. reasonable compensation, easy access, coherence and transparency (function). Last but not least the project will analyze who should endow these funds: the government or the private sector (private or public nature).

Keywords:FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT, EUROPEAN COMMUNITY LAW, BELGIAN LAW

Disciplines:Law, Other law and legal studies