ABSTRACT
Though surprising it may seem, given the importance that notion has today, civil law has done without using ‘responsibility’ for a long time. This word, which ‘was missing in Roman law’, 1 only became the object of doctrinal elaboration in the 19th century, and only in a limited way. 2 This may be due to the secondary character of responsibility. Responsibility, as etymology shows, is only an answer to something, 3 like an echo (which is also said to ‘answer’) 4 to a pre-existing reality which, in civil law, is an obligation. Civil liability is a legal answer to a prior obligation. Someone who has to answer for a civil obligation that falls to them is responsible under civil law.
