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Full-Text Articles in Law

Defending Courts: A Brief Rejoinder To Professors Fried And Rosenberg, David C. Vladeck Jan 2001

Defending Courts: A Brief Rejoinder To Professors Fried And Rosenberg, David C. Vladeck

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Harvard Professors David Rosenberg and Charles Fried have presented a provocative, sweeping critique of the theoretical foundations of tort liability that leaves virtually no aspect of our current tort system untouched, or perhaps more accurately, unscathed. Their article throws down the gauntlet to defenders of traditional tort law. For instance, Rosenberg and Fried take aim at the jury system, arguing that ex post liability rules created by juries are inefficient and should be replaced, whenever possible, by ex ante liability rules set by legislative bodies. And they attack the idea that compensation plays a legitimate role in structuring our tort …


Torts Teaching: From Basic Training To Legal-Process Theory: Dominick Vetri, "Tort Law And Practice", Joseph A. Page Jan 2001

Torts Teaching: From Basic Training To Legal-Process Theory: Dominick Vetri, "Tort Law And Practice", Joseph A. Page

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

It was in the course of my meanderings through the torts-casebook landscape that I came upon Professor Dominick Vetri's entry in the field. The quality that first attracted me was the way it fashioned a user-friendly introduction to the study of law, to the uniqueness of the common law, and to the centrality of process. The book demonstrated an unusual sensitivity to the bewilderment of beginners and made a special effort to anticipate their needs and concerns. Yet what made Vetri's approach particularly intriguing was that it managed to play not only to nervous neophytes, but also to students in …


What Courts Can Do In The Face Of The Never-Ending Asbestos Crisis, Paul F. Rothstein Jan 2001

What Courts Can Do In The Face Of The Never-Ending Asbestos Crisis, Paul F. Rothstein

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The purpose of this article is not to argue that claimants suffering from serious asbestos-related diseases should not be compensated. To the contrary, one of the points of this article is that absent some change in the way asbestos claims are resolved, claimants who become truly sick in the future may not receive adequate compensation. Changing the current asbestos compensation system would be pro-claimant. Also, the purpose of this article is not to ascribe blame. Rather, it is to fix a problem. The judges cannot be blamed for their good intentions. Neither can the plaintiffs' attorneys be blamed for zealously …


Tortious Toxics, Lisa Heinzerling, Cameron Powers Hoffman Jan 2001

Tortious Toxics, Lisa Heinzerling, Cameron Powers Hoffman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this Article we offer one small idea with potentially large implications. We propose the recognition arid development of a special tort for toxic exposures, where the exposures have not yet led to a physical illness such as cancer. We argue, in brief, that this new tort would, in one simple step, accomplish three things: it would address many of the problems with the courts' current handling of toxic torts; it would consolidate the many overlapping causes of action now pressed in toxic tort cases into one single claim; and it would give expression to the real injury motivating these …