TY - JOUR
T1 - Causing Wrong While Doing Good
T2 - On the Question of Liability for Volunteers in Emergencies
AU - Albris, Kristoffer
AU - Lauta, Kristian Cedervall
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Disaster response has always involved emergent activities by those immediately affected and volunteers converging on the scene. Although issues concerning responsibility and liability for volunteers in emergencies have been noted, in-depth discussions of the topic have been limited in disaster research. This article raises the following questions: What happens when people commit wrongs while trying to do good in disaster situations? How do legal and political systems balance encouraging citizens to help one another while holding people responsible for wrongdoings? By discussing the existing research literature and legal cases pertaining to the question of liability for, what we define as, volunteers, we argue that current understandings of liability are inadequate given recent calls for communities and citizens to become more disaster resilient and take on a larger role in response and preparedness work. We conclude by pointing towards three issues that ought to attract the attention of legal and social scholars in the future.
AB - Disaster response has always involved emergent activities by those immediately affected and volunteers converging on the scene. Although issues concerning responsibility and liability for volunteers in emergencies have been noted, in-depth discussions of the topic have been limited in disaster research. This article raises the following questions: What happens when people commit wrongs while trying to do good in disaster situations? How do legal and political systems balance encouraging citizens to help one another while holding people responsible for wrongdoings? By discussing the existing research literature and legal cases pertaining to the question of liability for, what we define as, volunteers, we argue that current understandings of liability are inadequate given recent calls for communities and citizens to become more disaster resilient and take on a larger role in response and preparedness work. We conclude by pointing towards three issues that ought to attract the attention of legal and social scholars in the future.
U2 - 10.1080/17477891.2019.1651687
DO - 10.1080/17477891.2019.1651687
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1747-7891
JO - Environmental Hazards
JF - Environmental Hazards
ER -