CIVIL LIABILITY AND THE EMERGENCE OF EXISTENTIAL DAMAGE: A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

Abstract

The main aim of this article is to briefly review existential damage. Existential damage is a type of damage that first appeared in Italy around 20 years ago. However, the situations that gave rise to it have also been repeated in other countries, although these events have been given different names. Currently, there is still little legal literature on the subject in Brazil: there is still not a good availability of rulings that refer to this damage using this nomenclature. Existential damage, although it cannot be confused with other institutes such as immaterial and off-balance sheet damage, nevertheless has great similarities with them. These damages, within the Brazilian legal system, are usually referred to as  “moral damages”. Furthermore, it is also possible to observe this institute in the Brazilian legal system under other names. Article 147-B of Law 14.188/21, for example, deals with “emotional damage”, which, when analyzed, points to similarities with existential damage and other institutes. For this reason in particular, this work deals with the origin of this damage and its legal aspects, differentiating it from other institutes of civil and criminal law. The lack of literature on the subject and the confusion with other problems, such as moral and emotional damage, show that approaching this subject as an object of study is important.