Torts Commons^™

Should The Brandenburg V. Ohio Incitement Test Apply In Media Violence Tort Cases?, Rodney A. Smolla

Law Faculty Publications

Imagine that you are a newly-installed justice of a state supreme court. An array of cases come before you in your first term posing, in a variety of contexts, questions concerning the extent to which tort liability may be imposed to compensate victims for injuries or death allegedly caused by presentation of violent material in the media. Here are the cases:

I. The manufacturers of a violent video game are sued for wrongful death by the families of victims of school children murdered in a killing spree at a high school. The plaintiffs allege that the teen-aged boy who committed …

The First Bite Is Free: Employer Liability For Sexual Harassment, Joanna L. Grossman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In June, 1998, the Supreme Court issued two decisions, Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth and Faragher v. City of Boca Raton that established new standards for employer liability for sexual harassment. Although the two cases presented different questions and factual predicates, the Court adopted a unified holding with respect to employer liability for supervisor harassment. Many commentators interpreted the new standards as a blow to employers based on the perception that employers would now be held accountable for workplace harassment without regard to their culpability.

The thesis of this article is that the conventional wisdom with respect to Faragher and …

The Products Liability Restatement In The Courts: An Initial Assessment, James A. Henderson Jr., Aaron Twerski

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Biotechnology's Challenge To The Law Of Torts, Julie A. Davies, Lawrence C. Levine

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Amatory Jurisprudence And The Querelle Des Lois, Peter Goodrich

Articles

It is my view, and here, no doubt, I am pre-empting my conclusion, that what literary and feminist historicism recognizes as the querelle des femmes, the debate as to the status and political role of women, is in fact underpinned and motivated by a much less explicit, yet nonetheless portentous, querelle des lois. The querelle des femmes, in other words, was always a polemic as to the legal status of women, as to their definition and role in theology and jurisprudence, canon and civil law. More than that, however, what the recovery of amatory jurisprudence can help to show is …

Class Action Accountability: Reconciling Exit, Voice, And Loyalty In Representative Litigation, John C. Coffee Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

In two recent and highly technical decisions – Amchem Products v. Windsor and Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp. – the Supreme Court has recognized that a serious potential for collusion exists in class actions and has outlined a concept of "class cohesion" as the rationale that legitimizes representative litigation. Although agreeing that a legitimacy principle is needed, Professor Coffee doubts that "class cohesion" can bear that weight, either as a normative theory of representation or as an economic solution for the agency cost and collective action problems that arise in representative litigation. He warns that an expansive interpretation of "class cohesion" …

Three Arguments Against Mt. Healthy: Tort Theory, Constitutional Torts, And Freedom Of Speech, Michael L. Wells

Scholarly Works

Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle is among the most important, and least discussed, cases in constitutional tort law. It stands for the abstract principle that the "but-for" rule of causation, which is the usual test in common-law torts, applies in constitutional torts as well. Doyle, a nontenured school teacher, quarreled with another teacher, with school employees, and with students. Two specific incidents deserve mention. First, on one occasion he "made an obscene gesture to two girls in connection with their failure to obey commands made in his capacity as cafeteria supervisor." Second, after the principal …

"Waive" Goodbye To Tort Liability: A Proposal To Remove Paternalism From Product Sales Transactions, Richard C. Ausness

San Diego Law Review

This Article argues that waivers of tort liability should be permitted in connection with product sales. Currently, sellers cannot limit their liability under tort law for personal injuries caused by defective products even though such waivers are allowed, albeit reluctantly, under principles of negligence and warranty law.

Alternative Liability In Litigation Malpractice Actions: Eradicating The Last Resort Of Scoundrels, Lawrence W. Kessler

San Diego Law Review

The legal malpractice tort, however, has managed to withstand the winds of legal change. Particularly crucial has been the refusal to apply alternative causation doctrines. The refusal to apply causation doctrines that have been embraced in other areas has significant social effects. As a result, the consumers of legal services receive less protection from the courts than do the consumers of products or medical services.