War Damage and Reparation During World War I in Europe: Between Individual Rights and State Interventionism

Résumé En

The article uses a comparative perspective to study how the reparation of material losses caused by war was managed at the time of the First World War. On the one hand, in several European countries, such as France, Belgium or Italy, an individual right to reparation was granted to victims of war damage. This right reversed the absence of State liability that prevailed before 1914 in matters of war. It guaranteed compensation for the losses suffered, but often remained conditional upon the victim's reemployment of the indemnity, according to the collective reconstruction goal assigned by the State. In the United Kingdom, on the other hand, no right to compensation was recognised, but several mechanisms show that the collective risks arising from the war were compensated by the State. The State control introduced in 1914 over marine insurance was extended to other types of risks, such as aerial bombardments. The article thus shows that the diversity of the legal ways of reparation at the time of the Great War does not obscure the long-term trend that the State be charged with the management of the war risks.