Law Commons^™

Medical Civil Liability Without Deterrence: Preliminary Remarks For Future Research, Emiliano Marchisio

Journal of Civil Law Studies

The traditional deterrence-based paradigm of civil liability may be understood as indirect market regulation, as the risk of incurring liability for damages provides an incentive to invest in safety. Such an approach, however, has proven to be inappropriate in medical civil liability. Extensive literature shows that the increase in the asymmetric protection of patients by extending medical civil liability beyond a certain limit does not improve safety; instead, that strategy determines the adoption of “defensive” techniques (the so-called “defensive medicine”). Paradoxically, this approach leads to a reduction in market efficiency and overall patient safety. The traditional paradigm of medical civil …