The internal coherence of English law and French law regarding the compensation of non-pecuniary losses can be tested by analysing how they conceive compensation for pain and suffering. In such context, the polysemic concept of weakness can be traced as a factor that explains a number of the asymmetries still persisting between what is conceived as being pecuniary as opposed to non-pecuniary, especially regarding the legal regime governing some physical injuries, on one hand, and mental distress, on the other. In this presentation a general overview of the distinction between pecuniary and non-pecuniary will be outlined, to then move to a brief overview of the historical sources which explain how the law arrived at its current position, from a comparative perspective. It will be argued that there are a number of areas where incoherence still persists in the legal sphere, both in English law and French law, for reasons overcome long ago in other areas of knowledge such as Philosophy of the Mind and Cognitive Sciences.
Moving away from the traditional cases dealing with death or injury of the primary victim, the Chilean Supreme Court compensated the non-pecuniary losses suffered by the wife and children of a man who was wrongly accused of being the author of a crime in the evening news emission of a national television broadcaster. A review of the current framework of protection given to honour and reputation will be useful to assess the structure of the compensation of non-pecuniary losses, distinguishing between normative and consequential ones, as well as highlighting to what extent “pure” moral losses are redressed. Additionally, the limitations imposed by other jurisdictions such as English and French law will be outlined, focusing on both the cases where secondary victims can claim such losses, as well as the restrictions imposed on the class of persons who can make such claims. All this will expose how the Chilean legal system shows signs of being one of the most liberal of the world regarding the breadth of the compensation of non-pecuniary losses, this being only one example among many others.