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Restating The Law: The Dilemmas Of Products Liability, Robert L. Rabin
Restating The Law: The Dilemmas Of Products Liability, Robert L. Rabin
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Tracing products liability law from its origins to present day developments, Professor Rabin discusses the long-standing presence of interwoven strands of contract and tort ideology, as well as the perennial tensions between strict liability and negligence. These themes are evident both in the distinctly influential California case law and in the two Restatement efforts to systematize the doctrine that has emerged nationally. Rabin identifies the manner in which foundational ideological precepts of consumer expectations and enterprise liability have contributed to a continuously dynamic, if often unsettled, debate over the appropriate regime for resolving product injury claims.
Regulatory Standards And Products Liability: Striking The Right Balance Between The Two, Teresa Moran Schwartz
Regulatory Standards And Products Liability: Striking The Right Balance Between The Two, Teresa Moran Schwartz
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Common law courts have a long tradition of borrowing legislative and regulatory standards to define standards of care under the tort system. Treating such standards as setting minimum levels of care and safety under tort law, the courts uniformly have ruled that violations of standards constitute negligence per se, while compliance is merely evidence of negligence. Although critics of the tort system have urged legislatures and courts to adopt rules giving greater weight to regulatory compliance in products liability cases, the drafters of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability have declined to do so. They have adopted instead an …