Law Commons^™

Ex Post ≠ Ex Ante: Determining Liability In Hindsight, Kim A. Kamin, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Participants in three conditions (foresight, hindsight, and a modified hindsight condition designed to ameliorate the hindsight effect) assessed whether a municipality should take, or have taken, precautions to protect a riparian property owner from flood damage. In the foresight condition, participants reviewed evidence in the context of an administrative hearing. Hindsight participants reviewed parallel materials in the context of a trial. Three quarters of the participants in foresight concluded that a flood was too unlikely to justify further precautions—a decision that a majority of the participants in hindsight found to be negligent. Participants in hindsight also gave higher estimates for …

Is Statutory Immunity For Spaceflight Operators Good Enough?, Maria-Vittoria “Giugi” Carminati

Legislation and Policy Brief

Over the past decade, the commercial spaceflight industry has seen a growth never witnessed before. The likes of Virgin Galactic and Xcor are promising suborbital flights to anyone willing to pay the price. Golden Spike is selling tickets to the moon. And SpaceX was re-supplying the ISS as a commercial provider as of 2012. States have responded to this growth by trying to make themselves more attractive to these commercial providers of space services (hereinafter generally referred to as “spaceflight entities”). Attractiveness has become synonymous with overt efforts to decrease spaceflight entities’ liability from injuries to their spaceflight participants (“SFPs”). …

The Role Of Litigation In The Fight Against Prescription Drug Abuse, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Prescription drug abuse problems have prompted a number of responses by both drug users (and abusers) and by various federal and state government agencies.

Part I of this Article examines the impressive array of liability theories that individual litigants have relied upon in their lawsuits against Purdue. These theories include: negligence; strict products liability, including design defect and inadequate warning claims; breach of the implied warranty of merchantability; violation of state consumer protection statutes; negligent marketing; fraudulent misrepresentation; civil conspiracy; and "malicious conduct." Purdue, the company that developed OxyContin, has pursued an aggressive "no settlement" policy and has chosen to …

Benevolent Maleficence:How A Well-Intentioned Legislature And A Deferential Court Combined To Stunt The Development Of Massachusetts Product Liability Law, Philip E. Cleary

University of Massachusetts Law Review

Massachusetts product liability law is unusual. Unlike most states, Massachusetts does not recognize strict tort liability in the product area. Rather, "strict product liability" is limited to breaches of warranty under Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code. the Massachusetts Legislature amended Article 2 in several ways to provide a "strict liability" remedy that is, in the words of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, "congruent in nearly all respects with the principles" of strict tort liability. The court has construed the amendments to the UCC as precluding the adoption of strict tort liability in Massachusetts. In most ways, Massachusetts product …

Houston, We Have A (Liability) Problem, Justin Silver

Michigan Law Review

The development of private manned space flight is proceeding rapidly; there are proposals to launch paying passengers before the end of 2014. Given the historically dangerous nature of space travel, an accident will probably occur at some point, resulting in passengers’ injury or death. In the event of a lawsuit stemming from such an accident, a court will likely find that a space flight entity operating suborbital flights is a common carrier, while an entity operating orbital flights is not. Regardless of whether these entities are common carriers, they face a threat of high levels of liability, as well as …

Circolazione Di Titoli Di Debito E Responsabilità Degli Investitori Professionali, Valerio Sangiovanni

Valerio Sangiovanni

No abstract provided.