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A Postmortem On The Cigarette Settlement, W. Kip Viscusi
A Postmortem On The Cigarette Settlement, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
The settlement of the Attorney Generals' suits against the cigarette industry for $206 billion was a landmark outcome. By any standard, the financial stakes were enormous, dwarfing eventhe largest tort liability judgments and punitive damages awards. Moreover, what was especially noteworthy was that the party paying for the costs was the cigarette industry, which to date had been almost unscathed after decades of litigation involving the hazards of smoking... Even more surprising than the enormous amount of the settlement is that any portion is being paid at all to the states. Past research at the national level indicates that cigarettes …
The First Constitutional Tort: The Remedial Revolution In Nineteenth-Century State Just Compensation Law, Robert Brauneis
The First Constitutional Tort: The Remedial Revolution In Nineteenth-Century State Just Compensation Law, Robert Brauneis
Vanderbilt Law Review
This Article traces the change in the remedial framework of nineteenth-century owner-initiated state constitutional just compensation litigation, and explores the relationship between that change and substantive changes in just compensation doctrine. Through the Civil War, owners complaining of government-sanctioned seizure of their property brought common-law tort actions against whomever might be held liable under ordinary tort and agency law. Defendants in those suits claimed that some piece of legislation altered tort law to shield them from liability for their acts. Plaintiff owners responded that the legislation on which defendants relied was void, because it purported to authorize acts that amounted …