Torts Commons^™

The Revolution Of The Commercial Space Industry: Why Current Laws Must Be Replaced Before American Business Expands To The Moon And Beyond, Drew M. Fryhoff

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Space, the final frontier. Resting at the rim of the Earth, an endless void full of opportunity awaits those who are willing to take a leap of faith. Historically, only national space programs have been capable of orchestrating expeditions to outer space. However, American aerospace companies now rival governmental entities in their abilities to operate beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. State-of-the-art developments in aerospace technology have positioned the American commercial space sector to become more productive than national space programs in the years to come. Unfortunately, the potential of the American commercial space sector is severely hindered under the Treaty on …

A History Of Consumer Class Actions In State Courts, Anne Fleming

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Most historians date the “modern” class action to the 1966 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Yet, the class action or “representative suit” has a longer, unexplored history in the state courts. In the late 1930s and 1940s, a group of scrappy, first-generation lawyers tried to build their businesses by aggregating the small-sum claims of many consumers. The defendants in these cases were, for example, lenders who failed to comply with the technicalities of state disclosure mandates, and utility companies that charged consumers extra fees. Each consumer’s claim was small, but, as a group, the claims could yield …

En La Iglesia Católica De Nueva York, Los Sobrevivientes Latinos De Abuso Infantil Podrían Estarse Perdiendo Un Momento Único De Rendición De Cuentas, Roman O. Gressier, Jocelyn Azucena Contreras

Capstones

El pasaje de la Ley de Protección de Víctimas Infantiles (CVA por sus siglas en inglés) en el Estado de Nueva York en agosto del 2019 ofrece un momento histórico de rendición de cuentas desde instituciones que por décadas permitieron u ocultaron abuso sexual contra niños bajo su cuidado. Desde que se aprobó la ley hasta 1 diciembre 2020, las cortes estatales registraron poco menos de 900 casos contra las dos diócesis de la Iglesia Católica que abarcan la Ciudad de Nueva York.

Aunque la CVA estará vigente por un plazo total de dos años, la impunidad de la que …

Close, But No Cigar: Issues With Louisiana Revised Statutes § 9:2800.27 And The Collateral Source Rule, Andrew G. Jarreau

Louisiana Law Review

The article discusses issues on the collateral source rule in Louisiana, the ruling by the state Supreme Court in the case Bozeman v. State, and why the state's Revised Statutes  9:2800.27 contradicts the policy behind tort recovery.

History Uprooted: Georgia Applies Apportionment To Strict Liability Claims, Carey Sartain

Mercer Law Review

Adrienne Johns had experience riding motorcycles for over 20 years when in 2013, total failure of the front brake on his 2006 Suzuki GSX-R1000 caused him to hit a curb, throwing him from his bike and knocking him unconscious. The accident resulted in Johns being hospitalized for over two months following spinal fusion surgery and surgery to repair his hand. Subsequent to the accident, he discovered that there had been a recall notice from Suzuki related to his bike model’s front brake. At trial, Johns proved that a design defect in the front brake had ultimately caused the brake to …

Torts, Jarome E. Gautreaux

Mercer Law Review

This Article addresses recent cases decided during the survey period in the area of torts. This survey period is especially remarkable for a couple of cases decided by the Georgia Supreme Court that overruled prior precedents.

Illuminating False Light: Assessing The Case For The False Light Tort In Canada, Fraser Duncan

Dalhousie Law Journal

The false light tort has been the most contentious of the four privacy torts recognized in many US states, receiving criticism for its uncertain connection to privacy interests, its overlap with defamation and its chilling effect on free speech. While the tort has not previously received much judicial or scholarly attention in Canada, the recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Yenovkian v Gulian recognized false light as a cause of action in the province. This article cautions other Canadian common law courts against following suit through an analysis of the nature, history, and criticisms of the …

Civil Liability For Encouraging Bad Behavior: From Cheering At A Gang Rape To Promoting Opioid Abuse, James A. Henderson Jr.

Florida Law Review

This Article examines the civil liability of actors who encourage others to behave badly, thereby causing harm. The analysis distinguishes between individual encouragers and business-entity encouragers. Individuals most often intend for the bad behaviors and the consequential harms to occur—witness cheerleaders at a gang rape. This Article advocates stern treatment of such mean-spirited malcontents. On the one hand, if their encouragement is a but-for condition of the others’ harm causing bad behavior, they should be subject to liability based on traditional intentional tort. On the other hand, if their encouragement is not a but-for condition, this essay proposes an exception …

Dispute Settlement Under The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: A Preliminary Assessment, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) will add a new dispute settlement system to the plethora of judicial mechanisms designed to resolve trade disputes in Africa. Against the discontent of Member States and limited impact the existing highly legalized trade dispute settlement mechanisms have had on regional economic integration in Africa, this paper undertakes a preliminary assessment of the AfCFTA Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM). In particular, the paper situates the AfCFTA-DSM in the overall discontent and unsupportive practices of African States with highly legalized dispute settlement systems and similar WTO-Styled DSMs among other shortcomings. Notwithstanding the transplantation of …

Fraud Is Now Legal In Texas (For Some People), Val D. Ricks

Texas A&M Law Review

Three intermediate appellate courts in Texas have held that corporate actors— directors, officers, managers, shareholders, and probably common employees and agents—are immune from personal liability for fraud that they themselves commit as long as their deceit relates to or arises from a contractual obligation of the corporation. Similar actors in limited liability companies also enjoy immunity. These courts do not require that the business entities themselves be liable for the fraud. When the entities are not liable, these new holdings leave fraud victims no remedy at all, even if a jury would find fraud. One (or maybe two) Texas appellate …

Oklahoma V. Purdue Pharma: Public Nuisance In Your Medicine Cabinet, Justin Kaufman

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is The U.S. Government Violating The Safe Conducts Of Noncitizens? How A Turn To Strict Originalism Could Revitalize The Alien Tort Statute, Gabe Cahn

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Enough Is As Good As A Feast, Noah C. Chauvin

Seattle University Law Review

Ipse Dixit, the podcast on legal scholarship, provides a valuable service to the legal community and particularly to the legal academy. The podcast’s hosts skillfully interview guests about their legal and law-related scholarship, helping those guests communicate their ideas clearly and concisely. In this review essay, I argue that Ipse Dixit has made a major contribution to legal scholarship by demonstrating in its interview episodes that law review articles are neither the only nor the best way of communicating scholarly ideas. This contribution should be considered “scholarship,” because one of the primary goals of scholarship is to communicate new ideas.

Where We’Re Going, We Don’T Need Drivers: Autonomous Vehicles And Ai-Chaperone Liability, Peter Y. Kim

Catholic University Law Review

The future of mainstream autonomous vehicles is approaching in the rearview mirror. Yet, the current legal regime for tort liability leaves an open question on how tortious Artificial Intelligence (AI) devices and systems that are capable of machine learning will be held accountable. To understand the potential answer, one may simply go back in time and see how this question would be answered under traditional torts. This Comment tests whether the incident involving an autonomous vehicle hitting a pedestrian is covered under the traditional torts, argues that they are incapable of solving this novel problem, and ultimately proposes a new …

Seeking (Some) Climate Justice In State Tort Law, Karen C. Sokol

Washington Law Review

Over the last decade, an increasing number of path-breaking cases have been filed throughout the world, seeking to hold fossil fuel industry companies and governments accountable for their actions and inactions that have contributed to the climate crisis. This Article focuses on an important subset of those cases—namely, the recent surge of cases brought by states, cities, and counties all over the United States alleging that the largest fossil fuel industry actors, including ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, and Chevron, are liable in state tort law for harms caused by climate change.

The Article begins with a synthesis of the history of …

Maximizing The Value Of America’S Newest Resource, Low- Altitude Airspace: An Economic Analysis Of Aerial Trespass And Drones, Tyler Watson

Indiana Law Journal

Recognizing that tort law is a unique area of law that was judicially created by rational human beings with an innate sense of economic justice, this Note seeks to apply positive economic theory—derived from ex post analyses of tort cases—to an ex ante analysis to predict how and to what extent the existing and proposed aerial trespass rules will further economic efficiency in the context of drones and airspace rights. Part I will provide (1) an overview of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) current regulatory framework and the development of the common law aerial trespass doctrine and (2) an overview …

Patent Accidents: Questioning Strict Liability In Patent Law, Patrick R. Goold

Indiana Law Journal

Accidental infringement of patent rights is a pervasive and growing problem in the Information Age. As IP rights proliferate and expand in scope, it is becoming increasingly easy for companies and individuals to inadvertently infringe patents. When such accidental infringement occurs, patent law holds the infringer strictly liable. This contrasts with many areas of tort law where defendants are only liable if they act negligently.

This Article questions the normative desirability of strict liability in patent law. Assuming the primary value of patent law is utilitarian, this Article poses the research question: what liability rule will maximize social welfare? This …

Climate Change And Government Negligence Liability In Massachusetts, Melissa Chalek

Marine Affairs Institute Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

"The New Weapon Of Choice": Law's Current Inability To Properly Address Deepfake Pornography, Anne Pechenik Gieseke

Vanderbilt Law Review

Deepfake technology uses artificial intelligence to realistically manipulate videos by splicing one person’s face onto another’s. While this technology has innocuous usages, some perpetrators have instead used it to create deepfake pornography. These creators use images ripped from social media sites to construct—or request the generation of—a pornographic video showcasing any woman who has shared images of herself online. And while this technology sounds complex enough to be relegated to Hollywood production studios, it is rapidly becoming free and easy-to-use. The implications of deepfake pornography seep into all facets of victims’ lives. Not only does deepfake pornography shatter these victims’ …

Maintenance Of Water And Sewer Infrastructure In Response To Sea Level Rise In Massachusetts, Melissa Chalek

Marine Affairs Institute Staff Publications

No abstract provided.