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Full-Text Articles in Law
Strict Products Liability At 50: Four Histories, Kyle Graham
Strict Products Liability At 50: Four Histories, Kyle Graham
Faculty Publications
This article offers four different perspectives on the strict products-liability "revolution" that climaxed a half-century ago. One of these narratives relates the prevailing assessment of how this innovation coalesced and spread across the states. The three alternative histories introduced by this article both challenge and complement the standard account by viewing the shift toward strict products liability through "populist," "practical," and "contingent" lenses, respectively. The first of these narratives considers the contributions that plaintiffs and their counsel made toward this change in the law. The second focuses upon how certain types of once-common products cases forged a practical argument for …
Who Shot Charles Summers?, Kyle Graham
Who Shot Charles Summers?, Kyle Graham
Faculty Publications
This short piece ties up a loose end from the somewhat famous Torts case of Summers v. Tice. In it, St. Peter considers who, as between Harold Tice and Ernest Simonson, actually shot Charles Summers.
Of Frightened Horses And Autonomous Vehicles: Tort Law And Its Assimilation Of Innovations, Kyle Graham
Of Frightened Horses And Autonomous Vehicles: Tort Law And Its Assimilation Of Innovations, Kyle Graham
Faculty Publications
This symposium contribution considers five recurring themes in the application of tort law to new technologies. First, the initial batch of cases presented to courts may be atypical of later lawsuits that implicate the innovation, yet relate rules with surprising persistence. Second, these cases may be identified, and resolved, by reference to analogies that rely on similarities in form, and which do not wear well over time. Third, it may be difficult to isolate the unreasonable risks generated by an innovation from the benefits it is perceived to offer. Fourth, potential claims by early adopters of the technology may be …
Why Torts Die, Kyle Graham
Why Torts Die, Kyle Graham
Faculty Publications
A few authors have performed autopsies on specific torts and identified the suspected reasons behind their deaths. These analyses, though interesting, are by their own admission of limited scope and do not provide especially useful analytic or predictive tools. This Article has a broader goal. Just as pathologists and epidemiologists study how fatal illnesses spread, conservation biologists examine why animal species go extinct, and geographers and anthropologists try to understand why societies succeed or fail, this Article surveys the roster of dead and dying torts and then asks (and tries to answer) a novel question: Why do torts die? This …