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Rawlsian Fairness And Regime Choice In The Law Of Accidents, Gregory Keating

Gregory C. Keating

Early in the 1970's George Fletcher wrote a remarkable article Fairness and Utility in Tort Theory—connecting distinctively Rawlsian ideas of fairness with reciprocity of risk imposition. Fletcher argued that nonreciprocity of risk both characterized realms of strict liability in tort and justified those realms, whereas reciprocity of risk characterized realms of tort law which were governed by negligence liability, and appropriately so. This article argues (1) against Fletcher’s identification of fairness in the choice of an accident law regime with the presence or absence of reciprocity of risk, and (2) in favor of focusing on the fair distribution of the …