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California Drops The Ball: The Lack Of A Clear Approach To Recklessness In Sport Injury Litigation, Joseph Hnylka
California Drops The Ball: The Lack Of A Clear Approach To Recklessness In Sport Injury Litigation, Joseph Hnylka
Faculty Scholarship
Joseph Hnylka, California Drops the Ball: The Lack of a Clear Approach to Recklessness in Sport Injury Litigation, 1 Virginia Sports & Entertainment Law Journal 77 (2012).
The Persistence Of Proximate Cause: How Legal Doctrine Thrives On Skepticism, Jessie Allen
The Persistence Of Proximate Cause: How Legal Doctrine Thrives On Skepticism, Jessie Allen
Articles
This Article starts with a puzzle: Why is the doctrinal approach to “proximate cause” so resilient despite longstanding criticism? Proximate cause is a particularly extreme example of doctrine that limps along despite near universal consensus that it cannot actually determine legal outcomes. Why doesn’t that widely recognized indeterminacy disable proximate cause as a decision-making device? To address this puzzle, I pick up a cue from the legal realists, a group of skeptical lawyers, law professors, and judges, who, in the 1920s and 1930s, compared legal doctrine to ritual magic. I take that comparison seriously, perhaps more seriously, and definitely in …