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Torts

Selected Works

2014

Negligence

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Mental Disabilities And Duty In Negligence Law: Will Neuroscience Reform Tort Doctrine?, Jean Eggen Sep 2014

Mental Disabilities And Duty In Negligence Law: Will Neuroscience Reform Tort Doctrine?, Jean Eggen

Jean M. Eggen

Recent developments in neuroscience may contribute to some long-needed changes in negligence law. One negligence rule in need of reform is the duty rule allowing physical disabilities to be considered in determining whether a party acted negligently, but disallowing mental disabilities for adult tortfeasors. Further, this bifurcated rule applies imposes an objective standard only on adults alleged to have acted negligently. A subjective standard applies to all parties in intentional torts and to children in negligence actions. Courts justify the bifurcated rule for adults on policy grounds, but these policy underpinnings are no longer valid in contemporary society. More accurate …


Negligence And Accommodation: On Taking Others As They Really Are, Avihay Dorfman Jan 2014

Negligence And Accommodation: On Taking Others As They Really Are, Avihay Dorfman

Avihay Dorfman

Disagreements over the morality and the efficiency of the standard of reasonable care are at the root of the study of negligence law (and, perhaps, tort law as a whole). They typically proceed as though the most important question that needs to be addressed is that of the content of this standard, namely, the question of what reasonable care is. However, in these pages I shall argue that there exists another important question, which is to say the manner in which reasonable care is evaluated. This question, I show, is neither fixed by nor subservient to the content of the …