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119. Whereas the purpose of the tortious remedy is to compensate the victim, the purpose of criminal proceedings is to punish the wrongdoer.

120. The fault principle has shortcomings. The very idea suggests that compensation is a form of punishment for wrongdoing which not only has the tendency to make tort overlap with criminal law but also, and more regrettably, implies that a wrongdoer should only be answerable to the extent of his fault. This is unjust when a wholly innocent victim sustains catastrophic harm through some trivial fault and is left virtually without compensation. Another defect is that in a highly mechanised modern society failures to conform to the standards of conduct set by law are often due, not to moral blameworthiness, but to momentary lapse and human error. The results may be dissastrous, yet to treat such failures as "fault" deprives the word of its meaning. Vicarious liability shows that the fault principle has to be abandoned whenever one person (a master), who is personally guiltless, is made answerable for the wrong-doing of another (his servant). The growth of insurance enables even the party at fault to shift the economic consequences of his wrong doing on to other shoulders (Clerk & Lindsell on Torts, 14th Edn.)