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Articles 1 - 29 of 29
Full-Text Articles in Law
Rescuing Maryland Tort Law: A Tribute To Judge Sally Adkins, Donald G. Gifford
Rescuing Maryland Tort Law: A Tribute To Judge Sally Adkins, Donald G. Gifford
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Data-Informed Duties In Ai Development, Frank A. Pasquale
Data-Informed Duties In Ai Development, Frank A. Pasquale
Faculty Scholarship
Law should help direct—and not merely constrain—the development of artificial intelligence (AI). One path to influence is the development of standards of care both supplemented and informed by rigorous regulatory guidance. Such standards are particularly important given the potential for inaccurate and inappropriate data to contaminate machine learning. Firms relying on faulty data can be required to compensate those harmed by that data use—and should be subject to punitive damages when such use is repeated or willful. Regulatory standards for data collection, analysis, use, and stewardship can inform and complement generalist judges. Such regulation will not only provide guidance to …
Sexual Privacy, Danielle Keats Citron
Sexual Privacy, Danielle Keats Citron
Faculty Scholarship
Those who wish to control and expose the identities of women and people from marginalized communities routinely do so by invading their privacy. People are secretly recorded in bedrooms and public bathrooms, and “up their skirts.” They are coerced into sharing nude photographs and filming sex acts under the threat of public disclosure of their nude images. People’s nude images are posted online without permission. Machine-learning technology is used to create digitally manipulated “deep fake” sex videos that swap people’s faces into pornography.
At the heart of these abuses is an invasion of sexual privacy—the behaviors and expectations that manage …
Technological Triggers To Tort Revolutions: Steam Locomotives, Autonomous Vehicles, And Accident Compensation, Donald G. Gifford
Technological Triggers To Tort Revolutions: Steam Locomotives, Autonomous Vehicles, And Accident Compensation, Donald G. Gifford
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Keeping Cases From Black Juries: An Empirical Analysis Of How Race, Income Inequality, And Regional History Affect Tort Law, Donald G. Gifford, Brian Jones
Keeping Cases From Black Juries: An Empirical Analysis Of How Race, Income Inequality, And Regional History Affect Tort Law, Donald G. Gifford, Brian Jones
Faculty Scholarship
This Article presents an empirical analysis of how race, income inequality, the regional history of the South, and state politics affect the development of tort law. Beginning in the mid-1960s, most state appellate courts rejected doctrines such as contributory negligence that traditionally prevented plaintiffs’ cases from reaching the jury. We examine why some, mostly Southern states did not join this trend.
To enable cross-state comparisons, we design an innovative Jury Access Denial Index (JADI) that quantifies the extent to which each state’s tort doctrines enable judges to dismiss cases before they reach the jury. We then conduct a multivariate analysis …
(Still) "Unsafe At Any Speed": Why Not Jail For Auto Executives?, Rena I. Steinzor
(Still) "Unsafe At Any Speed": Why Not Jail For Auto Executives?, Rena I. Steinzor
Faculty Scholarship
Americans can be forgiven for wondering what has gone so drastically wrong with the companies that sell automobiles. In 2014, 64 million, a number equivalent to one in five of the cars on the road, was recalled. Safety defects such as the lack of torque in ignition switches installed in GM compact cars like the Cobalt put motorists in the terrifying position of coping with a stalled engine and loss of power brakes while traveling at high speeds. GM had the audacity to classify this condition was not a safety defect, but instead was merely “inconvenient” for its customers. It …
Finding Fault?: Exploring Legal Duties To Return Incidental Findings In Genomic Research, Elizabeth R. Pike, Karen H. Rothenberg, Benjamin E. Berkman
Finding Fault?: Exploring Legal Duties To Return Incidental Findings In Genomic Research, Elizabeth R. Pike, Karen H. Rothenberg, Benjamin E. Berkman
Faculty Scholarship
The use of whole genome sequencing in biomedical research is expected to produce dramatic advances in human health. The increasing use of this powerful, data-rich new technology in research, however, will inevitably give rise to incidental findings (IFs), findings with individual health or reproductive significance that are beyond the aims of the particular research, and the related questions of whether and to what extent researchers have an ethical obligation to return IFs. Many have concluded that researchers have an ethical obligation to return some findings in some circumstances, but have provided vague or context-dependent approaches to determining which IFs must …
Apportioning Liability In Maryland Tort Cases: Time To End Contributory Negligence And Joint And Several Liability, Donald G. Gifford, Christopher J. Robinette
Apportioning Liability In Maryland Tort Cases: Time To End Contributory Negligence And Joint And Several Liability, Donald G. Gifford, Christopher J. Robinette
Faculty Scholarship
The Article presents a comprehensive proposal for assigning liability in tort cases according to the parties’ respective degrees of fault. The authors criticize the Court of Appeals of Maryland’s recent decision in Coleman v. Soccer Association of Columbia declining to abrogate contributory negligence, particularly the court’s notion that it should not act because of the legislature’s repeated failure to do so. The Article provides a comprehensive analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of comparative fault, including its effect on administrative costs, claims frequency, claims severity, insurance premiums, and economic performance. The authors propose the legislative enactment of comparative fault and …
Bonding Limited Liability, Robert J. Rhee
Bonding Limited Liability, Robert J. Rhee
Faculty Scholarship
Limited liability is considered a “birthright” of corporations. The concept is entrenched in legal theory, and it is a fixed reality of the political economy. But it remains controversial. Scholarly debate has been engaged in absolute terms of defending the rule or advocating its abrogation. Though compelling, these polar positions, often expressed in abstract arguments, are associated with disquieting effects. Without limited liability, efficiency may be severely compromised. With it, involuntary tort creditors bear some of the cost of an enterprise. Most other proposals for reforming limited liability have been incremental, such as modifying veil piercing. However, neither absolutism nor …
Mainstreaming Privacy Torts, Danielle Keats Citron
Mainstreaming Privacy Torts, Danielle Keats Citron
Faculty Scholarship
In 1890, Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis proposed a privacy tort and seventy years later, William Prosser conceived it as four wrongs. In both eras, privacy invasions primarily caused psychic and reputational wounds of a particular sort. Courts insisted upon significant proof due to those injuries’ alleged ethereal nature. Digital networks alter this calculus by exacerbating the injuries inflicted. Because humiliating personal information posted online has no expiration date, neither does individual suffering. Leaking databases of personal information and postings that encourage assaults invade privacy in ways that exact significant financial and physical harm. This dispels concerns that plaintiffs might …
Privacy As Product Safety, James Grimmelmann
Privacy As Product Safety, James Grimmelmann
Faculty Scholarship
Online social media confound many of our familiar expectaitons about privacy. Contrary to popular myth, users of social software like Facebook do care about privacy, deserve it, and have trouble securing it for themselves. Moreover, traditional database-focused privacy regulations on the Fair Information Practices model, while often worthwhile, fail to engage with the distinctively social aspects of these online services.
Instead, online privacy law should take inspiration from a perhaps surprising quarter: product-safety law. A web site that directs users' personal information in ways they don't expect is a defectively designed product, and many concepts from products liability law could …
Commentary [On Negligent Infliction Of Emotional Distress], Oscar S. Gray
Commentary [On Negligent Infliction Of Emotional Distress], Oscar S. Gray
Faculty Scholarship
These comments question the terminology used in the Third Restatement of Torts for psychological effects, partially on the ground of obsolescence in light of developments in the neurosciences. Instead of the distinction emphasized in the Third Restatement between “physical harm” and “emotional disturbance” (or “distress”), they suggest a distinction between “harm” that constitutes an impairment of functionality, which would be treated as a free-standing basis for liability, like conventional diseases or injuries, and “mere feelings”, which would continue to be compensable in negligence only parasitically. Similarly, the interest protected should be regarded not as an interest in freedom from “disturbance” …
Impersonating The Legislature: State Attorneys General And Parens Patriae Product Litigation, Donald G. Gifford
Impersonating The Legislature: State Attorneys General And Parens Patriae Product Litigation, Donald G. Gifford
Faculty Scholarship
The state attorney general has emerged during the past decade as a “super plaintiff” in state parens patriae litigation against manufacturers of cigarettes, automobiles, lead paint, and pharmaceuticals. Attorneys general sue on behalf of their states as the collective plaintiff, seeking reimbursement for the costs of treating or preventing product-caused diseases suffered by individual residents, even though such individual victims would not themselves be able to recover as plaintiffs. More importantly, they seek to supplant the regulatory regimes previously enacted by Congress, the state legislature, or federal agencies with one that reflects their own visions. This Article traces how state …
Reservoirs Of Danger: The Evolution Of Public And Private Law At The Dawn Of The Information Age, Danielle Keats Citron
Reservoirs Of Danger: The Evolution Of Public And Private Law At The Dawn Of The Information Age, Danielle Keats Citron
Faculty Scholarship
A defining problem at the dawn of the Information Age will be securing computer databases of ultra-sensitive personal information. These reservoirs of data fuel our Internet economy but endanger individuals when their information escapes into the hands of cyber-criminals. This juxtaposition of opportunities for rapid economic growth and novel dangers recalls similar challenges society and law faced at the outset of the Industrial Age. Then, reservoirs collected water to power textile mills: the water was harmless in repose but wrought havoc when it escaped. After initially resisting Rylands v. Fletcher’s strict liability standard as undermining economic development, American courts …
The Death Of Causation: Mass Products Torts' Incomplete Incorporation Of Social Welfare Principles, Donald G. Gifford
The Death Of Causation: Mass Products Torts' Incomplete Incorporation Of Social Welfare Principles, Donald G. Gifford
Faculty Scholarship
Legal actions against the manufacturers of disease-causing products, such as cigarettes and asbestos insulation, have redefined the landscape of tort liability during the past generation. These actions bedevil courts, because any particular victim often is unable to identify the manufacturer whose product caused her harm. Increasingly, but inconsistently, courts allow victims to recover without proof of individualized causation. This article argues that instrumental approaches seek to turn mass products tort law into the equivalent of a social welfare program, not unlike workers’ compensation or Social Security. As with any such program, the accident compensation system must include compensation entitlement boundaries, …
Market Share Liability Beyond Des Cases: The Solution To The Causation Dilemma In Lead Paint Litigation?, Donald G. Gifford, Paolo Pasicolan
Market Share Liability Beyond Des Cases: The Solution To The Causation Dilemma In Lead Paint Litigation?, Donald G. Gifford, Paolo Pasicolan
Faculty Scholarship
Over 300,000 young children in America—disproportionately poor and children of color—suffer from childhood lead poisoning. This disease ordinarily is caused by the deterioration of lead paint into flakes, chips, and dust that children ingest or inhale. Victims of childhood lead poisoning have tried to sue manufacturers of lead paint or lead pigment, but they face a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. Traditional tort law requires a plaintiff to prove that a specific tortfeasor caused the harm. This is almost impossible in the lead paint context because the paint that caused the harm usually consists of many layers, applied over the course of …
The Challenge To The Individual Causation Requirement In Mass Products Torts, Donald G. Gifford
The Challenge To The Individual Causation Requirement In Mass Products Torts, Donald G. Gifford
Faculty Scholarship
This article uses the example of mass products torts to test the traditional principle that requires a specific victim to prove that a particular injurer caused her harm in order to establish tort liability. Proponents of the instrumentalist conception of torts, notably those identified with law and economics such as Calabresi and Posner, view any requirement of individualized causation as “old-fashioned” and inconsistent with their goals of achieving loss minimization and loss distribution or wealth maximization. In contrast, corrective justice theorists, such as Ernest Weinrib, argue that particularized causation is intrinsic to the entire notion of tort liability. The judicial …
The Peculiar Challenges Posed By Latent Diseases Resulting From Mass Products, Donald G. Gifford
The Peculiar Challenges Posed By Latent Diseases Resulting From Mass Products, Donald G. Gifford
Faculty Scholarship
Legal actions against manufacturers of products that cause latent diseases, such as asbestos products, cigarettes, lead-pigment, and Agent Orange, are the signature torts of our time. Yet within this rather important subset of tort liability, it is unlikely that the imposition of liability actually results in loss prevention. Three factors, present in varying combinations in the context of latent diseases resulting from product exposure, frustrate the deterrent impact of liability. First, an extended period of time—sometimes decades—passes between the time of the manufacturer’s distribution of the product and the imposition of liability. Second, the accident compensation system frequently is unable …
Using Tort Law To Secure Patient Dignity, Robin Fretwell Wilson
Using Tort Law To Secure Patient Dignity, Robin Fretwell Wilson
Faculty Scholarship
The practice of using anesthetized patients to teach pelvic exams on female patients in university hospitals has been well documented for years. A 1992 study showed that 37 percent of U.S. and Canadian medical schools allowed students to use anesthetized women without their consent to learn how to perform pelvic exams. Anecdotal accounts in the U.S. confirm that men are not immune from such indignities. Although patients have been unable, thus, far to enforce their own interests and protect their dignity, the tort system may yet succeed in securing the right of patients to decide who touches their bodies and …
Public Nuisance As A Mass Products Liability Tort, Donald G. Gifford
Public Nuisance As A Mass Products Liability Tort, Donald G. Gifford
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Whose Duty Is It Anyway?: The Kennedy Krieger Opinion And Its Implications For Public Health Research, Diane E. Hoffmann, Karen H. Rothenberg
Whose Duty Is It Anyway?: The Kennedy Krieger Opinion And Its Implications For Public Health Research, Diane E. Hoffmann, Karen H. Rothenberg
Faculty Scholarship
In this article, the authors discuss the Maryland Court of Appeals decision in the case of Grimes v. Kennedy Krieger Institute, Inc. and its implications for the tort duty owed by researchers, in particular public health researchers, to their subjects. The Opinion resulted from two lawsuits alleging lead poisoning of children enrolled in a study conducted by the Kennedy Krieger Institute, a world renown pediatric research and treatment facility. The opinion shocked the research establishment with its scathing characterization of researchers and its apparent holding that in Maryland a parent cannot consent to the participation of a child in "nontherapeutic …
The Draft Ali Product Liability Proposals: Progress Or Anachronism?, Oscar S. Gray
The Draft Ali Product Liability Proposals: Progress Or Anachronism?, Oscar S. Gray
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Reflections On The Historical Context Of Section 402a, Oscar S. Gray
Reflections On The Historical Context Of Section 402a, Oscar S. Gray
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Ignoring History: The Liability Of Ships' Masters, Innkeepers And Stablekeepers Under Roman Law, David S. Bogen
Ignoring History: The Liability Of Ships' Masters, Innkeepers And Stablekeepers Under Roman Law, David S. Bogen
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Teaching Laws With Flaws: Adopting A Pluralistic Approach To Torts, Taunya Lovell Banks
Teaching Laws With Flaws: Adopting A Pluralistic Approach To Torts, Taunya Lovell Banks
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
On Sugarman On Tort-Chopping, Oscar S. Gray
Standard Of Care For Children Revisited, Oscar S. Gray
Standard Of Care For Children Revisited, Oscar S. Gray
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Misrepresentation - Part Ii, Fleming James, Oscar S. Gray
Misrepresentation - Part Ii, Fleming James, Oscar S. Gray
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Misrepresentation - Part I, Fleming James, Oscar S. Gray
Misrepresentation - Part I, Fleming James, Oscar S. Gray
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.