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Full-Text Articles in Law
Product Liability, Research And Development, And Innovation, W. Kip Viscusi, Michael J. Moore
Product Liability, Research And Development, And Innovation, W. Kip Viscusi, Michael J. Moore
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Product liability ideally should promote efficient levels of product safety, but misdirected liability efforts may depress beneficial innovations. This paper examines these competing effects of liability costs on product R & D intensity and new product introductions by manufacturing firms. At low to moderate levels of expected liability costs, there is a positive effect of liability costs on product innovation. At very high levels of liability costs, the effect is negative. At the sample mean, liability costs increase R & D intensity by 15 percent. The greater linkage of these effects to product R & D rather than process R …
Using Comparative Fault To Replace The All-Or-Nothing Lottery Imposed In Intentional Torts Suits In Which Both Plaintiff And Defendant Are At Fault, Gail D. Hollister
Using Comparative Fault To Replace The All-Or-Nothing Lottery Imposed In Intentional Torts Suits In Which Both Plaintiff And Defendant Are At Fault, Gail D. Hollister
Vanderbilt Law Review
All or nothing. For years this idea of absolutes has been a hallmark of tort law despite the inequities it has caused. Plaintiffs must either win a total victory or suffer total defeat. In recent years courts and legislatures have begun to recognize the injustice of the all-or-nothing approach and to replace it with rules that permit partial recoveries that are more equitably tailored to the particular facts of each case.' The most dramatic example of this more equitable approach is the nearly universal rejection of contributory negligence in favor of comparative fault in negligence cases. Almost all jurisdictions, however, …
Auctioning Class Action And Derivative Lawsuits: A Critical Analysis, Randall Thomas, Robert G. Hansen
Auctioning Class Action And Derivative Lawsuits: A Critical Analysis, Randall Thomas, Robert G. Hansen
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Numerous legal academics and practitioners have criticized the handling by plaintiffs' attorneys of large-scale class action and derivative lawsuits. These critiques point out attorneys' abuse of the legal system, ranging from purported collusion among plaintiffs and defendants.
Cigarette Warnings: The Perils Of The Cipollone Decision, W. Kip Viscusi
Cigarette Warnings: The Perils Of The Cipollone Decision, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
In Cipollone v Liggett Group, Inc., a splintered Court concluded that cigarette smokers who are injured through their consumption of tobacco may bring some state law tort claims against the manufacturers of the cigarettes. Other claims, however, are preempted by federal legislation requiring cigarette packages and advertising to bear warning labels, the specific wording of which is dictated by statute. After a detailed examina- tion of the economics of hazard warning systems, Professor Viscusi argues that the most important economic issues in the Cipollone case were cor- rectly resolved in Justice Stevens'plurality opinion, which contained little overt economic reasoning. The …