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Full-Text Articles in Law
To Drink The Cup Of Fury: Funeral Picketing, Public Discourse And The First Amendment, Steven J. Heyman
To Drink The Cup Of Fury: Funeral Picketing, Public Discourse And The First Amendment, Steven J. Heyman
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In Snyder v. Phelps, the Supreme Court held that the Westboro Baptist Church had a First Amendment right to picket the funeral of a young soldier killed in Iraq. This decision reinforces a position that has become increasingly prevalent in First Amendment jurisprudence – the view that the state may not regulate public discourse to protect individuals from emotional or dignitary injury. In this Article, I argue that this view is deeply problematic for two reasons: it unduly sacrifices the value of individual personality and it tends to undermine the sphere of public discourse itself by negating the practical and …
Proving Facts: Belief Versus Probability, Richard W. Wright
Proving Facts: Belief Versus Probability, Richard W. Wright
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No abstract provided.
Liability For Possible Wrongs: Causation, Statistical Probability And The Burden Of Proof, In Symposium, The Frontiers Of Tort Law, Richard W. Wright
Liability For Possible Wrongs: Causation, Statistical Probability And The Burden Of Proof, In Symposium, The Frontiers Of Tort Law, Richard W. Wright
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Courts around the world are increasingly considering whether liability should exist in various types of situations in which a plaintiff can prove that a defendant’s tortious conduct may have contributed to the plaintiff’s injury, but it is inherently impossible, given the nature of the situation, for the plaintiff to prove that the defendant’s tortious conduct actually contributed to the injury. The problematic nature of the causal issue is usually recognized when the probability of causation is not greater than 50 percent, with courts adopting different views, depending on the type of situation, on whether liability nevertheless is appropriate and, if …
The Principles Of Product Liability, In Symposium, Products Liability: Litigation Trends On The 10th Anniversary Of The Third Restatement, Richard W. Wright
The Principles Of Product Liability, In Symposium, Products Liability: Litigation Trends On The 10th Anniversary Of The Third Restatement, Richard W. Wright
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No abstract provided.
Acts And Omissions As Positive And Negative Causes, Richard W. Wright
Acts And Omissions As Positive And Negative Causes, Richard W. Wright
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No abstract provided.
Causation, Responsibility, Risk, Probability, Naked Statistics, And Proof: Pruning The Bramble Bush By Clarifying The Concepts, Translated Into Italian By Federico Stella, Richard W. Wright
Causation, Responsibility, Risk, Probability, Naked Statistics, And Proof: Pruning The Bramble Bush By Clarifying The Concepts, Translated Into Italian By Federico Stella, Richard W. Wright
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No abstract provided.
Hand, Posner, And The Myth Of The "Hand Formula", In Symposium, Negligence In The Law, Richard W. Wright
Hand, Posner, And The Myth Of The "Hand Formula", In Symposium, Negligence In The Law, Richard W. Wright
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There is a striking incongruence between the discussions of negligence in the legal literature, including the American Law Institute's Restatement of Torts, and the understandings of ordinary people and the actual practice of the courts. The legal literature generally assumes that an aggregate-risk-utility test is employed to determine whether conduct was reasonable or negligent. This test was invented by legal academics and inserted in the first Restatement during the first part of the twentieth century, although, as recent studies all conclude, it had almost no support in the cases prior to its adoption in the Restatement and for several decades …
The Grounds And Extent Of Legal Responsibility, In Symposium, What Do Compensatory Damages Compensate?, Richard W. Wright
The Grounds And Extent Of Legal Responsibility, In Symposium, What Do Compensatory Damages Compensate?, Richard W. Wright
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This article identifies and discusses the three principal limitations on the extent of legal responsibility for tortiously caused harm and explains and justifies them by reference to the principle of interactive justice, which holds one legally responsible for causing (or being imminently about to cause) harm to another's person or property as a result of conduct that is inconsistent with others' right to equal freedom. The three principal limitations prevent liability for a tortiously caused harm when (1) the harm almost certainly would have occurred anyway in the absence of any tortious conduct or condition (the "no worse off" limitation), …
Justice And Reasonable Care In Negligence Law, Richard W. Wright
Justice And Reasonable Care In Negligence Law, Richard W. Wright
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The academic literature generally assumes that an aggregate-risk-utility test is employed to determine whether conduct was reasonable or negligent. This aggregate-risk-utility test is a transparent implementation of the basic impartiality and aggregation principles of utilitarianism and the most popular (Kaldor-Hicks) interpretation of economic efficiency. Thus, the test's assumed prevalence as the criterion of reasonableness in negligence law has been highlighted by legal economists as confirmation of the utilitarian efficiency foundations of tort law, while those, including Ronald Dworkin, who think that the law, including tort law, is or should be grounded on principles of justice have sought to demonstrate that, …
Negligence In The Courts: Introduction And Commentary, In Symposium, Negligence In The Courts: The Actual Practice, Richard W. Wright
Negligence In The Courts: Introduction And Commentary, In Symposium, Negligence In The Courts: The Actual Practice, Richard W. Wright
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This article is an introduction to and commentary on the contributions to a "Symposium on Negligence in the Courts: the Actual Practice." The contributors all conclude that the tests of negligence that are actually employed by the courts differ from the aggregate-risk-utility test that is generally assumed in the academic literature, including the Restatement of Torts. Patrick Kelley and Laurel Wendt's survey of all the standard jury instructions on negligence in the United States finds only one instruction, in Louisiana, that mentions a risk-utility or cost-benefit test of negligence, and that instruction merely suggests, as a discretionary option, the weighing …
The Vitality Of Joint And Several Liability: Brief Amici Curiae Of American Law Professors In Support Of Respondents, Richard W. Wright
The Vitality Of Joint And Several Liability: Brief Amici Curiae Of American Law Professors In Support Of Respondents, Richard W. Wright
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Tort reform advocates hoped to use a recent case, Norfolk & Western Railway Co. v. Ayers, 123 S. Ct. 1210 (2003), as a vehicle for obtaining a Supreme Court opinion critical of the traditional doctrine of joint and several liability. Under this doctrine, each of the multiple responsible causes of an injury is potentially fully liable for that injury. The specific issue in Ayers was the availability of joint-and-several liability under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA), which employs common-law tort doctrines while excluding some of the traditional defenses. The defendant claimed that the traditional common law used fractional apportionment …
Once More Into The Bramble Bush: Duty, Causal Contribution, And The Extent Of Legal Responsibility, In Symposium, The John W. Wade Conference On The Third Restatement Of Torts, Richard W. Wright
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Courts, lawyers, law students, and academics continue to confuse the empirical issue of causal contribution with the distinct normative issues of tortious conduct and legal injury, which precede and frame the causal-contribution inquiry, and the normative issue of the extent of legal responsibility for tortiously caused consequences, which follows the causal-contribution inquiry. In a number of prior articles, I have tried to distinguish and clarify these various issues, which arise not only in tort law, but also in much the same form in criminal law and many other areas of the law. I have focused primarily on distinguishing and clarifying …
Principled Adjudication: Tort Law And Beyond, Richard W. Wright
Principled Adjudication: Tort Law And Beyond, Richard W. Wright
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The article briefly discusses the impossibility of a strict formalist or positivist approach to legal adjudication and the necessity and plausibility of a principled approach, according to which it is necessary to resort, explicitly or implicitly, to the principles underlying the positive expressions or sources of law to identify, interpret and apply the law, in easy as well as hard cases. The legitimacy of the principled approach crucially depends on resort to the community's moral principles as embedded in the existing law -- those moral principles which best explain as much as possible of the existing law -- rather than …
Right, Justice, And Tort Law, Richard W. Wright
Right, Justice, And Tort Law, Richard W. Wright
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No abstract provided.
The Standards Of Care In Negligence Law, Richard W. Wright
The Standards Of Care In Negligence Law, Richard W. Wright
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No abstract provided.
Foundations Of The Duty To Rescue, Steven J. Heyman
Foundations Of The Duty To Rescue, Steven J. Heyman
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No abstract provided.
The Logic And Fairness Of Joint And Several Liability, In Symposium, Comparative Negligence, Richard W. Wright
The Logic And Fairness Of Joint And Several Liability, In Symposium, Comparative Negligence, Richard W. Wright
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No abstract provided.
Tort Liability, The First Amendment, And Equal Access To Electronic Networks, Henry H. Perritt Jr.
Tort Liability, The First Amendment, And Equal Access To Electronic Networks, Henry H. Perritt Jr.
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No abstract provided.
Understanding Joint And Several Liability, Richard W. Wright
Understanding Joint And Several Liability, Richard W. Wright
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No abstract provided.
Throwing Out The Baby With The Bathwater: A Reply To Professor Twerski, Richard W. Wright
Throwing Out The Baby With The Bathwater: A Reply To Professor Twerski, Richard W. Wright
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No abstract provided.
Allocating Liability Among Multiple Responsible Causes: A Principled Defense Of Joint And Several Liability For Actual Harm And Risk Exposure, Richard W. Wright
Allocating Liability Among Multiple Responsible Causes: A Principled Defense Of Joint And Several Liability For Actual Harm And Risk Exposure, Richard W. Wright
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No abstract provided.
Causation, Responsibility, Risk, Probability, Naked Statistics, And Proof: Pruning The Bramble Bush By Clarifying The Concepts, Richard W. Wright
Causation, Responsibility, Risk, Probability, Naked Statistics, And Proof: Pruning The Bramble Bush By Clarifying The Concepts, Richard W. Wright
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No abstract provided.
The Efficiency Theory Of Causation And Responsibility: Unscientific Formalism And False Semantics, In Symposium, Causation In The Law Of Torts, Richard W. Wright
The Efficiency Theory Of Causation And Responsibility: Unscientific Formalism And False Semantics, In Symposium, Causation In The Law Of Torts, Richard W. Wright
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No abstract provided.
Causation In Tort Law, Richard W. Wright
Causation In Tort Law, Richard W. Wright
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No abstract provided.