Just Culture: The Only Way to Proceed. Towards Enhancing Safety

The legal definition of ‘just culture’ is contained in Regulation (EU) 691/2010: “a culture in which front line operators are not punished for actions, omissions or decisions taken by them that are commensurate with their experience and training, but where gross negligence, willful violations and destructive acts are not tolerated”. Subsequent Regulation (EU) 996/2010 states: “The civil aviation system should equally promote a non-punitive environment facilitating the spontaneous reporting of occurrences and thereby advancing the principle of ‘just culture’”. Similarly, article 16(6) of Regulation 376/2014 - without prejudice to applicable national criminal law - forces EU Member States to refrain from instituting proceedings in respect of unpremeditated or inadvertent infringements of the law. So, spontaneous reporting is considered a means of ensuring safety, thanks to the application of the principle of ‘just culture’, in an atmosphere of complete trust, without the fear of being punished. The above definition is based on the difference between simple and gross negligence, but there is not yet a commonly agreed legal definition of ‘gross negligence’ in Europe and worldwide. This shortcoming depends on the difference between common and civil law systems in this respect. This article seeks to underline the importance of the implementation of a more constructive ‘just culture’ in the aviation field and the need to abandon the traditional conception of a ‘blame culture’ followed by the courts order to alleviate the widespread phenomenon of criminalization