The Economics of U.S. Tort Liability

The Economics of U.S. Tort Liability PDF

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Publisher: Congressional Budget Office

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 54

ISBN-13:

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A CBO Study. Attempts to clarify the issues and policy options surrounding the tort system. Presents an economic perspective on tort liability. Outlines the strengths and weaknesses of tort liability as a tool for promoting economic efficiency and fairness. Discusses the available data on the benefits and costs of the tort system. Analyzes in qualitative terms the likely effects of various policy options for altering the system. Makes no recommendations.

The Economics of U.S. Tort Liability: A Primer

The Economics of U.S. Tort Liability: A Primer PDF

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13:

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Many controversies and policy issues surround the U.S. tort system, which holds parties liable for injuries to people or property. Critics charge that the system is costly and inefficient, arbitrary and open to abuse, and indirectly harmful through its adverse effects on economic vitality and consumers' choices. In contrast, defenders argue that the tort system serves important social objectives, such as compensating injury victims, improving product safety, and punishing egregious behavior. Several bills now before the Congress propose to change the rules that govern tort claims for medical malpractice and asbestos exposure and claims litigated as class actions. This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study-prepared at the request of the Senate Budget Committee-attempts to clarify the issues and policy options surrounding the tort system by presenting an economic perspective on tort liability. The study outlines the strengths and weaknesses of tort liability as a tool for promoting economic efficiency and fairness, discusses the available data on the benefits and costs of the tort system, and analyzes in qualitative terms the likely effects of various policy options for altering the system. In keeping with CBO's mandate to provide objective, impartial analysis, this study makes no recommendations.

The Economics of US Tort Liability

The Economics of US Tort Liability PDF

Author: Perry Beider

Publisher:

Published: 2004-02-01

Total Pages: 33

ISBN-13: 9780756739386

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Many controversies surround the U.S. tort system, which holds parties liable for injuries to people or property. Critics charge that the system is costly and inefficient, arbitrary and open to abuse, and indirectly harmful through its adverse effects on econ. vitality and consumers' choices. Defenders argue that the tort system serves important social objectives, such as compensating injury victims, improving product safety, and punishing egregious behavior. This study presents an economic perspective on tort liability (TL). It outlines the strengths and weaknesses of TL as a tool for promoting economic efficiency and fairness, discusses the benefits and costs of the tort system, and analyzes the likely effects of various policy options for altering the system.

Research Handbook on the Economics of Torts

Research Handbook on the Economics of Torts PDF

Author: Jennifer Arlen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2013-11-29

Total Pages: 668

ISBN-13: 1781006172

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Focusing on issues of vital importance to those seeking to understand and reform the tort system, this volume takes a multi-disciplinary approach, including theoretical economic analysis, empirical analysis, socio-economic analysis, and behavioral anal

Tort Law and Economics

Tort Law and Economics PDF

Author: Michael Faure

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 565

ISBN-13: 1848447302

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The central goal of this book is to provide a state-of-the-art overview of the literature with respect to the economic analysis of tort law. It sure meets the challenge, offering with great expertise a comprehensive presentation of tort law in both economic and comparative perspectives. The clarity of the text, unusual in the law and economics literature, makes the book accessible to a broad readership of economists with a limited legal background and lawyers with limited economic skills. Olivier Moreteau, Louisiana State University, US Tort Law and Economics, ed. Michael Faure, provides a highly useful economic overview of the most important topics of tort law. The authors clearly show the main developments of the discussion, examining the results of recent studies and stating their own opinions. Detailed bibliographies are included. The volume has to be warmly recommended to friends and foes of economic analysis who are provided with a comprehensive update in this field while also indicating areas which critics have to focus on. Helmut Koziol, European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law, Austria This volume provides a state-of-the-art overview of the literature on the economic analysis of tort law. In sixteen chapters, the specialist authors guide the reader through the often vast literature in each domain providing a balanced and comprehensive summary. Particular attention is paid to the evolution of the field, further refinements to economic models and relevant conclusions and lessons for the policymaker. Tort Law and Economics is part of the Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, and enables readers, some not familiar with law and economics, to obtain an insight in the relevant economic literature concerning tort law and economics. This book will be of interest to lawyers and economists, practitioners and academics interested in accident law, tort law, insurance and regulation. It will also appeal to students in economic analysis of law and policymakers working on prevention of accidents, tort law or compensation of accident victims.

The Economics of U.S. Tort Liability

The Economics of U.S. Tort Liability PDF

Author:

Publisher: Congressional Budget Office

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13:

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A CBO Study. Attempts to clarify the issues and policy options surrounding the tort system. Presents an economic perspective on tort liability. Outlines the strengths and weaknesses of tort liability as a tool for promoting economic efficiency and fairness. Discusses the available data on the benefits and costs of the tort system. Analyzes in qualitative terms the likely effects of various policy options for altering the system. Makes no recommendations.

Strict Liability

Strict Liability PDF

Author: Frank J. Vandall

Publisher: Praeger

Published: 1989-10-06

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13:

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This volume presents a cogent analysis of the legal and economic consequences arising from expansion in the doctrine of strict liability and the corresponding decrease in the importance of proving fault. Vandall's goal is to illuminate the role of strict liability in the largely unheralded and informal development of the American compensation system. To this end, he examines and explains the widening of strict liability during the last 121 years, with particular emphasis on the past 29 years. Vandall begins with a historical overview of strict liability, arguing that the policies which have supported the growth of strict liability within products liability also support its application in other areas. By comparing and contrasting the U.S. and British compensation systems, he shows that the U.S. has been drawn towards the adoption of strict liability because it lacks socialized medicine. Subsequent chapters set forth various tests for strict liability and critique the negligence-efficiency theory. Turning to a discussion of contemporary practice, Vandall sets out the present scope of strict liability and asserts that a case can be made for the extension of strict liability far beyond the area of products liability. Finally, Vandall evaluates the reforms aimed at strict liability over the last ten years and concludes that the suggested return to negligence is unwarranted and not supported by facts.

The Economic Structure of Tort Law

The Economic Structure of Tort Law PDF

Author: William M. Landes

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9780674230514

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Written by a lawyer and an economist, this is the first full-length economic study of tort law--the body of law that governs liability for accidents and for intentional wrongs such as battery and defamation. Landes and Posner propose that tort law is best understood as a system for achieving an efficient allocation of resources to safety--that, on the whole, rules and doctrines of tort law encourage the optimal investment in safety by potential injurers and potential victims. The book contains both a comprehensive description of the major doctrines of tort law and a series of formal economic models used to explore the economic properties of these doctrines. All the formal models are translated into simple commonsense terms so that the "math less" reader can follow the text without difficulty; legal jargon is also avoided, for the sake of economists and other readers not trained in the law. Although the primary focus is on explaining existing doctrines rather than on exploring their implementation by juries, insurance adjusters, and other "real world" actors, the book has obvious pertinence to the ongoing controversies over damage awards, insurance rates and availability, and reform of tort law-in fact it is an essential prerequisite to sound reform. Among other timely topics, the authors discuss punitive damage awards in products liability cases, the evolution of products liability law, and the problem of liability for "mass disaster" torts, such as might be produced by a nuclear accident. More generally, this book is an important contribution to the "law and economics" movement, the most exciting and controversial development in modern legal education and scholarship, and will become an obligatory reference for all who are concerned with the study of tort law.