State Liability and Critical Infrastructure: A Comparative and Functional Analysis

Critical Infrastructure (CI) provision is characterized by privatization of CI providers, transnational risks and a changing role of the state. We describe two paradigmatic systems of state liability with a view to CI liability, namely Germany as a fault system and Switzerland as a strict liability system. Both are unsatisfactory and not well adapted to the modern realities and exigencies of allocation of risks and liability in CI and show flaws from a functional, incentive-based perspective. Therefore, we make suggestions how those systems may be ameliorated, suggesting organizational, design and supervisory liability reforms.