Law Commons^™

Tort Law As Corrective Justice: A Pragmatic Justification For Jury Adjudication, Catharine Pierce Wells

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this article is to develop a pragmatic analysis of corrective justice that will serve as a partial justification for current practices of tort adjudication. Part I discusses the concept of corrective justice and explores its relationship to the problem of justifying tort law. Part II argues that certain contemporary theories of corrective justice fail to provide an adequate basis for regarding individual tort outcomes as just. Part III develops a pragmatic account of corrective justice and argues that it accurately describes current practices of tort adjudication. Finally, Part IV argues that these practices are justified in the …

Compensation For Smoking-Related Injuries: An Alternative To Strict Liability In Tort, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The Surgeon General has described cigarette smoking as the "single most important preventable environmental factor contributing to illness, disability and death in the United States." Each year, smoking-related diseases claim more than 350,000 lives. Smoking-related illnesses also impose a huge economic burden on society. Estimates of health care costs range from $12 billion to $22 billion per year, and productivity losses due to illness and death are even greater.

Arguably, cigarette companies and their customers ought to bear the health costs of smoking. At the present time, however, the tobacco industry has largely escaped responsibility for these costs. Instead, smoking-related …