Law Commons^™

Defectiveness Restated: Exploding The "Strict" Products Liability Myth, David G. Owen

Faculty Publications

Strict liability in tort has occupied the core of modern products liability doctrine ever since Dean Prosser first penned the most often cited Restatement section in history-section 402A of the Second Restatement of Torts. In the Third Restatement, the ALl has completely restructured the definition of product defectiveness. The inscrutable phrase that has confounded courts and commentators for so many years- "defective condition unreasonably dangerous"- is now trifurcated according to the separate types of product defects: manufacturing defects, design defects, and warnings defects. In this important article, Professor Owen explores the conceptual developments that led to the restated liability formulations …