ABSTRACT

Disaster response has always involved emergent activities by those immediately affected and volunteers converging on the scene. Although issues concerning responsibility and liability for volunteers in emergencies have been noted, in-depth discussions of the topic have been limited in disaster research. This article raises the following questions: What happens when people commit wrongs while trying to do good in disaster situations? How do legal and political systems balance encouraging citizens to help one another while holding people responsible for wrongdoings? By discussing the existing research literature and legal cases pertaining to the question of liability for, what we define as, volunteers, we argue that current understandings of liability are inadequate given recent calls for communities and citizens to become more disaster resilient and take on a larger role in response and preparedness work. We conclude by pointing towards three issues that ought to attract the attention of legal and social scholars in the future.

摘要

灾难响应始终涉及立即受到影响的人们和聚集在现场的志愿者的紧急活动。尽管已注意到紧急情况下对志愿者的责任和义务的问题，但在灾难研究中对该主题的深入讨论受到限制。本文提出了以下问题：当人们在灾难情况下尽力而为时犯下错误时会发生什么？法律和政治制度如何平衡鼓励公民互相帮助，同时又要对不法行为负责的平衡？通过讨论与志愿者（我们定义为志愿者）的责任问题相关的现有研究文献和法律案例，我们认为，鉴于最近要求社区和公民提高抗灾能力并在应对和备灾工作中发挥更大作用，目前对责任的理解是不够的。最后，我们指出了三个将来应引起法律和社会学者关注的问题。