Law Commons^™

The Prosser Letters: 1917-1948, Christopher Robinette

Christopher J Robinette

Do Black Lives Matter?: Race As A Measure Of Injury In Tort Law, Alberto Bernabe

Alberto Bernabe

Civil Liability For Injuries Caused By Dogs After Tracey V. Solesky: New Path To The Future Or Back To The Past?, Alberto Bernabe

Alberto Bernabe

Toward A Theory Of Stare Decisis, Martin Shapiro

Martin Shapiro

Proposes a theory of stare decisis which draws upon the insights of communications theory as well as the decision-making process in tort law. Branches of communications theory; Discussion on the information and redundancy concepts of syntactics; Model which have overshadowed the importance of redundancy in error correction; Key activity of the tort organization and its litigational market operating under the rules of stare decisis; Reason behind the survival of stare decisis.

In The Eye Of The Beholder: Tort Litigants' Evaluations Of Their Experiences In The Civil Justice System, E. Lind, Robert Maccoun, Patricia Ebener, William Felstiner

Robert MacCoun

Little is known about the reactions of tort litigants to traditional and alternative litigation procedures. To explore this issue, we interviewed litigants in personal injury cases in three state courts whose cases had been resolved by trial, court-annexed arbitration, judicial settlement conferences, or bilateral settlement. The litigants viewed the trial and arbitration procedures as fairer than bilateral settlement, apparently because they believed that trials and arbitration hearings gave their case more respectful treatment. They were less satisfied with the outcome of judicial settlement conferences than with the outcome of bilateral settlements, because judicial settlement conference outcomes were more likely to …

Estimating Liability Risks With The Media As Your Guide, Daniel Bailis, Robert Maccoun

Robert MacCoun

Argues that the media exaggerates the number of multimillion-dollar awards in lawsuits; US.

Reflections On The Theory And Administration Of Strict Tort Liability For Defective Products, John Montgomery, David Owen

David Owen

No abstract provided.

Mass Tort Settlement Class Actions, Jay Tidmarsh

Jay Tidmarsh

No abstract provided.

Party Autonomy In Tort Theory And Reform, Christopher Robinette

Christopher J Robinette

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 …

The Fundamental Nature Of Title Vii, Maria Ontiveros

Maria L. Ontiveros

This article explores the fundamental nature of Title VII and argues that Title VII is a statute designed to protect the right to own and use one's own labor free from discrimination in order to provide meaningful economic opportunity and participation. This conclusion is based upon three different types of analysis: the elements approach; the super statute approach and the human rights approach. The "elements approach" places Title VII in context and argues that it cannot be interpreted in isolation because it is only one element of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The "super statute approach" argues that Title …

Apportioning Liability In Maryland Tort Cases: Time To End Contributory Negligence And Joint And Several Liability, Christopher Robinette

Christopher J Robinette

Faragher, Ellerth, And The Federal Law Of Vicarious Liability For Sexual Harassment By Supervisors: Something Lost, Something Gained, And Something To Guard Against, William Corbett

William R. Corbett

In this Essay, the author faces his nightmare exam question: he must define "sexual harassment" to the satisfaction of several potential graders with different perspectives on sexual harassment law. His valiant effort to justify his response leads him to a discussion of the federal law of vicarious liability for sexual harassment by supervisors after the Supreme Court's recent rejection of tort law respondeat superior analysis for such claims under Title VII. The author argues that, while the rejection of the tort standard for vicarious liability in Title VII claims removes the longstanding connection between Title VII law and state tort …

Unmasking A Pretext For Res Ipsa Loquitur: A Proposal To Let Employment Discrimination Speak For Itself, William Corbett

William R. Corbett

Has too much tort law been incorporated into the case law under the federal employment discrimination statutes? The debate on this issue has been reinvigorated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Staub v. Proctor Hospital, 131 S. Ct. 1186 (2011). In Staub the Court referred to the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, a federal employment discrimination statute, as a “federal tort.” The Court then adopted the tort doctrine of proximate cause as the standard for evaluating subordinate bias (or “cat’s paw”) liability. Staub was not the first case in which the Court has suggested that a federal employment …

New York Law Of Domestic Violence, Deseriee Kennedy

Deseriee A. Kennedy

NEW YORK LAW OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, 3rd ed., is a comprehensive 2-volume, 7-chapter, hardbound treatise published by West (Thomson-Reuters). The treatise is the seminal authority on domestic violence in New York State covering New York State laws and relevant U.S. Supreme Court cases. The authors of the book are Professor Breger (Albany Law School, Albany, NY), Professor Kennedy (Touro School of Law, Central Islip, NY), Jill M. Zuccardy, Esq. (New York City), and now retired Judge Lee Hand Elkins (formerly Brooklyn Family Court). The treatise and its authors have been cited as authority repeatedly by trial and appellate courts, as …

General Principles And Introductory Matters In Motor Vehicle Insurance Law, Christopher Robinette

Christopher J Robinette

Two Roads Diverge For Civil Recourse Theory, Christopher Robinette

Christopher J Robinette

Recovery In Louisiana Tort Law For Intangible Economic Loss: Negligence Actions And The Tort Of Intentional Interference With Contractual Relations, David Robertson

Dr David Robertson

No abstract provided.

Toward A Neuroscience Model Of Tort Law: How Functional Neuroimaging Will Transform Tort Doctrine, Jean Eggen, Eric Laury

Jean M. Eggen

The “neuroscience revolution” has now gained the attention of legal thinkers and is poised to be the catalyst for significant changes in the law. Over the past several decades, research in functional neuroimaging has sought to explain a vast array of human thought processes and behaviors, and the law has taken notice. Although functional neuroimaging is not yet close to being a staple in the courtroom, the information acquired from these studies has been featured in a handful of cases, including a few before the United States Supreme Court. Our assertion involves the incorporation of functional neuroscience evidence in tort …

A Tale Of Two Ironies: In Defense Of Tort, David Partlett, William Gill

William Gill

Cases And Materials On The Law Of Torts, 5th Edition, Harry Shulman, Fleming Jones, Oscar Gray, Donald Gifford

Oscar S. Gray

This casebook is designed for the professor who takes seriously the often-articulated goals of teaching case analysis and the impact of social and economic factors on the common law. Enough of the majority opinions, and often the dissenting opinions, is presented to illustrate how the cases fit together with precedents and to enable students to evaluate competing arguments. The latest edition, though streamlined from previous editions, adds both coverage of emerging areas of liability, including claims under the alien tort statute, and traditional torts applied in new factual contexts, such as cyberspace and biomedical engineering.

Harper, James And Gray On Torts, 3rd Edition, Fowler Harper, Fleming James, Oscar Gray

Oscar S. Gray

This preeminent work on torts is the most complete, authoritative resource analyzing the latest developments in this turbulent field of practice. Harper, James and Gray on Torts, Third Edition, newly revised and updated in a six-volume set, gives you detailed, up-to-date information and expert guidance on such rapidly changing areas as:

• Health care liability
• Standards for damages
• Product liability
• Defamation
• Assumption of risk
• Business torts
• Liability for emotional distress
• Pure economic loss
• Privacy
• Family torts
• Comparative and contributory negligence
• Governmental liability
• Duties of owners and occupiers of land
• Misrepresentation and nondisclosure
• Malicious prosecution and abuse of process
• Liability for abnormally …

A Theory Of Discipline For Professional Misconduct, Nadia Sawicki

Nadia N. Sawicki

State medical boards derive their licensure and disciplinary authority from the police powers reserved to the states under the 10th Amendment. Though it is clear that public health, safety, and welfare are well-served by the educational and examination requirements uniformly imposed upon medical professionals, many medical practice acts also authorize discipline for professional misconduct that does not directly implicate clinical competence or patient safety - for example, being convicted of a felony or a crime of moral turpitude, failing to comply with a child support order, providing expert opinion to a court without reasonable investigation, ordering unnecessary laboratory tests, engaging …

Compliance With Advance Directives: Wrongful Living And Tort Law Incentives, Holly Lynch, Michele Mathes, Nadia Sawicki

Nadia N. Sawicki

Modern ethical and legal norms generally require that deference be accorded to patients' decisions regarding treatment, including decisions to refuse life-sustaining care, even when patients no longer have the capacity to communicate those decisions to their physicians. Advance directives were developed as a means by which a patient's autonomy regarding medical care might survive such incapacity. Unfortunately, preserving patient autonomy at the end of life has been no simple task. First, it has been difficult to persuade patients to prepare for incapacity by making their wishes known. Second, even when they have done so, there is a distinct possibility that …

The Disappearing Opt-Out Right In Punitive Damages Class Actions, Richard Frankel

Richard H. Frankel

One of the most pressing issues in punitive damages law today is how to protect defendants from multiple punitive damages awards for a single course of conduct, while still ensuring that wronged plaintiffs can recover punitive damages. Numerous commentators have proposed non-opt-out class actions for punitive damages as the best solution to the multiple punishment problem because they subject defendants to a single collective punitive damages award that can be distributed equitably across all injured plaintiffs. This Article takes a contrary view. It argues that mandatory classes improperly deprive class plaintiffs of their right to opt out and pursue their …

Technology & Torts: A Theory Of Memory Costs, Nondurable Precautions And Interference Effects, Ben Depoorter

Ben Depoorter

This Article examines the influence of nondurable precaution technologies on the expansion of tort awards. We provide four contributions to the literature. First, we present a general, formal model on durable and non-durable precaution technology that focuses on memory costs. Second, because liability exposure creates interference, we argue that tort law perpetuates the expansion of awards. Third, because plaintiffs do not consider the social costs of interference effects, private litigation induces socially excessive suits. Fourth, while new harm-reducing technologies likely increase accident rates, such technologies also raise the ratio of trial costs to harm, leaving undetermined the overall effect of …

Why Civil Recourse Theory Is Incomplete, Christopher Robinette

Christopher J Robinette

Tort Reform By Implied Conflict Preemption, Martin A. Kotler

Martin A. Kotler

Cases And Materials On The Law Of Torts, Harry Shulman, Fleming James, Oscar Gray, Donald Gifford

Oscar S. Gray

This casebook is designed for teaching case analysis and the impact of social and economic factors on the common law. Enough of the majority opinions, and often the dissenting opinions, is presented to illustrate how the cases fit together with precedents and to enable students to evaluate competing arguments. The latest edition, though streamlined from previous editions, adds both coverage of emerging areas of liability, including claims under the alien tort statute, and traditional torts applied in new factual contexts, such as cyberspace and biomedical engineering.

Misrepresentation - Part I, Fleming James, Oscar Gray

Oscar S. Gray

No abstract provided.