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Civil Recourse, Damages-As-Redress, And Constitutional Torts, Michael L. Wells

Georgia Law Review

Modern tort theory is dominated by the principle of loss
allocation, which uses liability and damages as
instruments for assigning losses to deter unwanted
behavior and to compensate the plaintiff. Under loss
allocation, the central principle of damages is to make the
plaintiff whole through 'full" compensation. Recently, as
an alternative to loss allocation,Professors John Goldberg
and Benjamin Zipursky have advanced a civil recourse
theory of damages. In contrast to loss allocation, civil
recourse focuses tort law on empowering plaintiffs to seek
redress by evaluating damages through the lens of 'fair"
compensation. Goldberg and Zipursky's work is especially
timely because, …