LA RESPONSABILIDAD CIVIL DE LAS PERSONAS MAYORES ELDERLY PERSONS' CIVIL LIABILITY.

European legal systems can be classified into two main models as regards their approach to mentally disabled elderly people's civil liability. The civil culpability model is followed in legal systems such as Germany, Italy or Portugal. For them the ability to reason is a precondition for liability in negligence. Unlike this first model, a second model subjects mentally disabled elderly persons to a more rigurous regime of liability. So, in France the lack of capacity is no longer a defence against liability in negligence from 1968. In addition this paper deals with the study of the subject in some international instruments directed to modernizing the EuropeanTort Law (Draft of Common Frame of Reference and Principles of European Tort Law). Finally, it analyzes the recent modification of the Civil Code in order to adapt the Spanish system to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]