Torts Commons^™

Causation In Hepatitis B. Vaccination Litigation In France: Breaking Through Scientific Uncertainty?, Jean-Sebastien Borghetti

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Vaccination against hepatitis B has been available since 1982 and is strongly recommended by most health professionals. In France, the hepatitis B vaccine is very widespread, but it has come under suspicion that it can cause demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Several epidemiological studies have been carried out to discover if there is indeed a connection between the hepatitis B vaccination and demyelinating diseases, but no such connection has been established so far. Many cases have nevertheless been brought before French courts, in which plaintiffs argue that they have developed a demyelinating disease due to the hepatitis B vaccination, …

Material Contribution To Risk In The Canadian Law Of Toxic Torts, Lynda M. Collins

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Causation is acknowledged as the single biggest hurdle to recovery for plaintiffs in toxic tort actions in Canada (and elsewhere). Scientific uncertainty involving questions of both generic and specific causation has frequently precluded recovery for plaintiffs even where defendants have negligently exposed them to toxic risk. Three types of uncertainty have been identified: plaintiff indeterminacy (where we know that the defendant has harmed some proportion of a particular population but no individual can prove causation); defendant indeterminacy (where we know that a group of defendants has harmed a particular plaintiff or plaintiffs but each can escape liability by pointing the …

Causation In Cases Of Evidential Uncertainty: Juridical Techniques And Fundamental Issues, Ken Oliphant

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This paper reviews from a comparative legal perspective the range of juridical techniques that have been developed in different legal systems to address perceived problems of uncertain alternative causation. It finds that the process of development has generally proceeded in an ad hoc and unprincipled fashion, without regard for overall coherence. It argues for a more principled legal approach in which the appropriate legal response (full liability, proportional liability or no liability) is adopted on the basis of a ranking of the different categories of cases in which problems of causal uncertainty can arise, reflecting the strength (or weakness) of …

The European Directive On Products Liability: The Promise Of Progress?, Lawrence C. Mann, Peter R. Rodrigues

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Medical Malpractice: The Italian Experience, Claudia Dimarzo

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Beginning with an investigation into the problematic nature of medical liability, the Article overviews the most significant approaches taken by courts and scholars in order to establish whether the physician's position before the patient is comparable with that of either a tortfeasor or a contractor.

Having explained that the most recent approaches in this regard tend toward the recognition of the contractual nature of medical liability, the Author discusses the implications of such a solution, making specific reference to the following issues: 1) the assignment of the burden of proof (along with the distinction between obligations of means and obligations …

Medical Malpractice And Compensation In South Africa, L. C. Coetzee, Pieter Carstens

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article gives an overview of current medical malpractice law in South Africa. The following aspects are covered: The overall scheme for preventing and redressing medical errors and adverse events, including regulation, criminal and civil liability, and social and private insurance, and the relationships among these various systems; the details of the applicable liability and compensation systems, including criteria defining qualification for compensation, causation and "loss of chance," liability for failure to obtain informed consent, as well as matters of proof and gathering of evidence. The authors note the difficulty they had in obtaining empirical data on medical errors and …