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51 Am. J. Comp. L. 275 (2003)
Liability of Financial Experts in German and American Law: An Exercise in Comparative Methodology

handle is hein.journals/amcomp51 and id is 287 raw text is: MICHAEL COESTER BASIL MARKESINIS Liability of Financial Experts in German and American Law: An Exercise in Comparative Methodology A. GERMAN LAW I. Introduction 1. The Problem Professional advice is sought for (and paid for) in many contexts. This happens much more often today than in earlier times because the overall societal and economic structures have become more com- plex, knowledge has expanded dramatically, and the willingness to pay for it has greatly increased. At the same time, knowledge has inevitably also become very specialized. The specialist professionals sell their knowledge on a contractual basis, and the buyers rely on it to make important decisions. In principle, if the provider of advice has been negligent,1 and the advice relied upon turns out to be false, it seems only fair that he be held liable to pay damages. But many other considerations may help dilute this starting point. In contemporary legal systems the liability of experts has taken on specific forms in different contexts (e.g., the liability of doctors, lawyers, etc.). A broad field in which professional advice plays an im- portant role and on which the following article will focus, is money investment. Banks or private lenders often seek information about the value of a business, its financial situation, or about the value of securities before they decide about their own financial engagement. If MICHAEL COESTER, LL.M., D.Iur. Faculty of Law, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich. BASIL MARKESINIS, QC, LL.D. (Cantab.), DCL, (Oxon.), D.Iur. h.c. mult., FBA, Univer- sity College London and Jamail Regents Chair in Law, University of Texas at Austin. Both authors are grateful to Professor David Robertson of the University of Texas at Austin for valuable comments on an early draft and Professor Markesinis also wishes to record his thanks to Dr. Hannes Unberath, his co-author of The German Law of Torts. A Comparative Treatise (4th ed. 2002)-henceforth cited as M&U-as well as Dr. Jdrg Fedtke (Hamburg and London); Dr. Gebhard Rehm (Munich); and Nancy M. Scheifele, CPA and Attorney-at-law (Texas), Hielbeler, Hasner, Keller and Partner, Munich, for long and useful discussions on this complicated topic. 1. In this article we are thus not concerned with fraud. In practice, the dividing line is not always easy to draw.