delicti

Delicti is the genitive form of the Latin delictum, meaning “of the wrong” or “of the offense.” In legal usage, delictum denotes a wrongful act or fault, and the term appears in many civil-law texts as the basis for non-contractual liability. In modern practice, the English term tort is often used to translate the concept.

In civil-law traditions, a delict (and its related forms) refers to a civil wrong for which the law provides a remedy, typically in the form of damages or restitution. This liability arises independently of any contract, distinguishing delictual liability from contractual obligations. The delictual system treats harm caused to another by a fault as a basis for private redress.

The core elements of a delict generally include: a wrongful act or omission; fault or negligence, meaning a breach of a duty of care or intentional wrongdoing; causation linking the act to the harm; and damages or other relief suffered by the injured party. The precise criteria and thresholds for fault, causation, and remedy vary by jurisdiction, but the underlying idea is to place the injured party in a position similar to before the wrong.

Delict liability is distinct from criminal liability, which concerns punishment by the state. In many jurisdictions, delictual liability operates within civil law and focuses on compensation rather than punishment. Terminology for delict varies by jurisdiction—tort in English-speaking systems; responsabilité délictuelle in French systems; Delikt in German-speaking systems; onrechtmatige daad in Dutch systems—yet the basic concept remains the same: civil liability arising from a fault that harms another.