El diseño y el defecto de diseñoanálisis doctrinal y jurisprudencial desde la perspectiva de la responsabilidad civil por productos defectuosos

Resumen

The productive processes of today's society are characterized by having, in general, three phases. A first phase of product design, a second phase of manufacture or construction of the product following the parameters agreed in the design phase, and a third and final phase of advertising and marketing of the product. The first of these phases, specifically named "design phase", has acquired a fundamental role in recent years, so we see how departments and sectors have been created solely aimed at this work, investing large amounts of economic resources with the purpose of obtaining aesthetic, profitable, appetizing designs and, as far as possible, safe. However, the relevance of the design of a product is not only reflected in the income obtained as a result of its sales, but also with respect to the potential compensation that may have to be paid as a result of the damages that a specific product may cause. Therefore, the objective of this doctoral thesis is to accomplish an in-depth analysis of both the design concept and the design defect, taking into account certain specific regulations, but also the European regulation of liability for defective products. In addition, a study is executed with safety as the core of the concept of defect. All this under a double perspective that includes the analysis of both the European regulation and the different American soft law texts, and an exhaustive study of the jurisprudence in this regard. The work aims to combine different criteria for the American determination of the design defect with the criteria and the European regulation, in addition, a possible change of criterion is expressed in terms of the strict liability of the European regulation. The methodology used in the development of this doctoral thesis is that of the Legal Sciences, that is, the study of legal, doctrinal, and jurisprudential texts related to the specific theme of the thesis for the detection of controversial issues, the extraction of conclusions, and the presentation of proposals and concrete solutions. As results or conclusions, the approach of the criteria for the determination and detection of design defects in products is noticeable. Although the regulation, in principle, has been based on a regime of objective civil liability, the elements of subjectivity in the matter become clear and highlight when it comes to design defects. This divergence has also been detected in certain judicial decisions where the courts combine elusive behavior in terms of the specification of design defects. It has been possible to verify that the detection of a design defect implies executing a comparison between the real design, that is, the one that was finally executed and that, indeed, has caused damage, and a kind of ideal design (not perfect) that is safer and that, in short, would not have caused the damage, as long as it does not involve an excessive cost. Finally, it has been understood that the study of specific assumptions within the damages for defective products such as the analysis of the crashworthiness doctrine as far as motor vehicles are concerned and the cause of exemption from liability of producers based on the risks of development (faithfully connected with design defects) help us to determine the connection of these specific defects with elements of fault within the responsibility.