ABSTRACT
When harm occurs, we often ask who is to be held responsible. However, in complex situations in which many agents are involved, it is often quite difficult to pinpoint responsibility. In a review of a hundred shipping accidents, Wagenaar and Groenewegen (1987: 596) conclude: “Accidents appear to be the result of highly complex coincidences which could rarely be foreseen by the people involved. The unpredictability is due to the large number of causes and by the spread of the information over the participants”. Because the ability to foresee undesirable consequences is usually seen as a condition for responsibility, this raises doubts as to whether it is reasonable to hold someone responsible for the accident that occurred.
