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Research Handbook on the Economics of Torts
This pioneering Handbook contains specially-commissioned chapters on tort law from leading experts in the field. This volume evaluates issues of vital importance to those seeking to understand and reform the tort law and the litigation process, taking a multi-disciplinary approach, including theoretical economic analysis, empirical analysis, socio-economic analysis, and behavioral analysis. Topics discussed include products liability, medical malpractice, causation, proximate cause, joint and several liability, class actions, mass torts, vicarious liability, settlement, damage rules, juries, tort reform, and potential alternatives to the tort system. Scholars, students, legal practitioners, regulators, and judges with an interest in tort law, litigation, damages, and reform will find this seminal Handbook an invaluable addition to their libraries.
More Information
Critical Acclaim
Contributors
Contents
More Information
This pioneering Handbook contains specially-commissioned chapters on tort law from leading experts in the field. This volume evaluates issues of vital importance to those seeking to understand and reform the tort law and the litigation process, taking a multi-disciplinary approach, including theoretical economic analysis, empirical analysis, socio-economic analysis, and behavioral analysis. Topics discussed include products liability, medical malpractice, causation, proximate cause, joint and several liability, class actions, mass torts, vicarious liability, settlement, damage rules, juries, tort reform, and potential alternatives to the tort system. Scholars, students, legal practitioners, regulators, and judges with an interest in tort law, litigation, damages, and reform will find this seminal Handbook an invaluable addition to their libraries.
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 analysis of liability rules and the litigation process. Topics discussed include products liability, medical malpractice, causation, proximate cause, joint and several liability, class actions, mass torts, vicarious liability, settlement, damage rules, juries, tort reform, and potential alternatives to the tort system.
Scholars, students, law practitioners, regulators, judges and economists with an interest in tort law, litigation, damages, and reform will find this seminal Handbook an invaluable addition to their libraries.
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 analysis of liability rules and the litigation process. Topics discussed include products liability, medical malpractice, causation, proximate cause, joint and several liability, class actions, mass torts, vicarious liability, settlement, damage rules, juries, tort reform, and potential alternatives to the tort system.
Scholars, students, law practitioners, regulators, judges and economists with an interest in tort law, litigation, damages, and reform will find this seminal Handbook an invaluable addition to their libraries.
Critical Acclaim
‘The highlight of this intellectually rich volume is the multiple perspectives it offers on the economic analysis of the tort system. In collecting these essays from leading legal scholars, Jennifer Arlen offers a wide range of empirical, institutional, and doctrinal dimensions of economic thought critical to assessing how our socio-legal system addresses the problem of accidental harm. The volume will serve as an invaluable contribution to the literature on the dynamic character of the tort system in action.’
– Robert L. Rabin, Stanford Law School, US
‘An indispensable resource for anyone interested in economic analysis of tort law, and tort law period. Professor Arlen has assembled an academic all-star team, and its members have prepared up-to-date, high quality, and accessible treatments of centrally important topics ranging from causation and damages to vicarious liability and insurance to tort reform and tort alternatives. With respect to the analysis of tort law through the lenses of empirical and microeconomic analysis, this is now the go-to volume.’
– John Goldberg, Harvard Law School, US
‘This Handbook redefines the boundaries of research in the economics of torts by integrating the standard model with a theoretical and empirical analysis of the institutions intervening before (contracts) and after (litigation) the occurrence of harm. It is an essential companion for scholars working in this field and provides plenty of new ideas for further research.’
– Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
‘In this beautifully edited volume, Jennifer Arlen has brought together an impressive line-up of outstanding scholars working in the area of tort liability. The volume showcases the great progress that has been made applying theoretical and empirical methodology to the study of law, and provides invaluable insights into directions for future research. Every scholar who is interested in the role of social science in legal scholarship will be stimulated and inspired by its contents.’
– Kathryn E. Spier, Harvard Law School, US
– Robert L. Rabin, Stanford Law School, US
‘An indispensable resource for anyone interested in economic analysis of tort law, and tort law period. Professor Arlen has assembled an academic all-star team, and its members have prepared up-to-date, high quality, and accessible treatments of centrally important topics ranging from causation and damages to vicarious liability and insurance to tort reform and tort alternatives. With respect to the analysis of tort law through the lenses of empirical and microeconomic analysis, this is now the go-to volume.’
– John Goldberg, Harvard Law School, US
‘This Handbook redefines the boundaries of research in the economics of torts by integrating the standard model with a theoretical and empirical analysis of the institutions intervening before (contracts) and after (litigation) the occurrence of harm. It is an essential companion for scholars working in this field and provides plenty of new ideas for further research.’
– Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
‘In this beautifully edited volume, Jennifer Arlen has brought together an impressive line-up of outstanding scholars working in the area of tort liability. The volume showcases the great progress that has been made applying theoretical and empirical methodology to the study of law, and provides invaluable insights into directions for future research. Every scholar who is interested in the role of social science in legal scholarship will be stimulated and inspired by its contents.’
– Kathryn E. Spier, Harvard Law School, US
Contributors
Contributors: J. Arlen, L. Babcock, T. Baker, R. Cooter, A.F. Daughety, D. DePianto, S.S. Diamond, T. Eisenberg, R.A. Epstein, J. Furgeson, M.A. Geistfeld, M.F. Grady, L. Hardcastle, M. Heise, E. Helland, D.R. Hensler, K.N. Hylton, L.A. Kornhauser, R. Kraakman, G. Miller, J.F. Reinganum, J.M. Salerno, S.A. Seabury, C.M. Sharkey, P. Siegelman, E.L. Talley, M. Trebilcock, P.-E. Veel, W.K. Viscusi, A.L. Wickelgren, K. Zeiler
Contents
Contents:
Introduction
Jennifer Arlen
PART I: OVERVIEW OF TORT LITIGATION
1. Empirical Analysis of Civil Litigation: Tort Trials in State Courts
Michael Heise
PART II: ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF LIABILITY
2. Economic Analysis of Medical Malpractice Liability and its Reform
Jennifer Arlen
3. Economic Analysis of Products Liability: Theory
Andrew F. Daughety and Jennifer F. Reinganum
4. Causation in Tort Law: A Reconsideration
Keith N. Hylton
5. Causation and Foreseeability
Mark F. Grady
6. Fault Lines in the Positive Economic Analysis of Tort Law
Mark A. Geistfeld
7. The Law and Economics of Liability Insurance: A Theoretical and Empirical Review
Tom Baker and Peter Siegelman
PART III: ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF MULTI-PARTY LITIGATION
8. Economic Analysis of Joint and Several Liability
Lewis A. Kornhauser
9. Economic Policy and the Vicarious Liability of Firms
Reinier Kraakman
10. Group Litigation in the Enforcement of Tort Law
Geoffrey Miller
11. The Socio-economics of Mass Torts: What We Know, Don’t Know and Should Know
Deborah R. Hensler
PART IV: THE LITIGATION PROCESS
12. Law, Economics, and the Burden(s) of Proof
Eric L. Talley
13. Law and Economics of Settlement
Abraham L. Wickelgren
14. Bounded Rationality in the Settlement Process: Empirical Evidence on the Causes of Settlement Failure in Litigation
Linda Babcock and Joshua Furgeson
15. Contingent-fee Contracts in Litigation: A Survey and Assessment
Eric Helland and Seth A. Seabury
16. Empirical Analysis of Juries in Tort Cases
Shari Seidman Diamond and Jessica M. Salerno
PART V: DAMAGES
17. Damages for Incompensable Harms
Robert Cooter and David DePianto
18. Empirical Analysis of Tort Damages
W. Kip Viscusi
19. Economic Analysis of Punitive Damages: Theory, Empirics, and Doctrine
Catherine M. Sharkey
PART VI: REFORM OF AND ALTERNATIVES TO THE TORT SYSTEM
20. The Empirical Effects of Tort Reform
Theodore Eisenberg
21. Do Damage Caps Reduce Medical Malpractice Insurance Premiums? A Systematic Review of Estimates and the Methods Used to Produce Them
Kathryn Zeiler and Lorian Hardcastle
22. No-fault Accident Compensation Systems
Michael Trebilcock and Paul-Erik Veel
23. Alternatives and Complements: Liability and Regulation as Remedies for Physical Injury
Richard A. Epstein
Index
Introduction
Jennifer Arlen
PART I: OVERVIEW OF TORT LITIGATION
1. Empirical Analysis of Civil Litigation: Tort Trials in State Courts
Michael Heise
PART II: ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF LIABILITY
2. Economic Analysis of Medical Malpractice Liability and its Reform
Jennifer Arlen
3. Economic Analysis of Products Liability: Theory
Andrew F. Daughety and Jennifer F. Reinganum
4. Causation in Tort Law: A Reconsideration
Keith N. Hylton
5. Causation and Foreseeability
Mark F. Grady
6. Fault Lines in the Positive Economic Analysis of Tort Law
Mark A. Geistfeld
7. The Law and Economics of Liability Insurance: A Theoretical and Empirical Review
Tom Baker and Peter Siegelman
PART III: ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF MULTI-PARTY LITIGATION
8. Economic Analysis of Joint and Several Liability
Lewis A. Kornhauser
9. Economic Policy and the Vicarious Liability of Firms
Reinier Kraakman
10. Group Litigation in the Enforcement of Tort Law
Geoffrey Miller
11. The Socio-economics of Mass Torts: What We Know, Don’t Know and Should Know
Deborah R. Hensler
PART IV: THE LITIGATION PROCESS
12. Law, Economics, and the Burden(s) of Proof
Eric L. Talley
13. Law and Economics of Settlement
Abraham L. Wickelgren
14. Bounded Rationality in the Settlement Process: Empirical Evidence on the Causes of Settlement Failure in Litigation
Linda Babcock and Joshua Furgeson
15. Contingent-fee Contracts in Litigation: A Survey and Assessment
Eric Helland and Seth A. Seabury
16. Empirical Analysis of Juries in Tort Cases
Shari Seidman Diamond and Jessica M. Salerno
PART V: DAMAGES
17. Damages for Incompensable Harms
Robert Cooter and David DePianto
18. Empirical Analysis of Tort Damages
W. Kip Viscusi
19. Economic Analysis of Punitive Damages: Theory, Empirics, and Doctrine
Catherine M. Sharkey
PART VI: REFORM OF AND ALTERNATIVES TO THE TORT SYSTEM
20. The Empirical Effects of Tort Reform
Theodore Eisenberg
21. Do Damage Caps Reduce Medical Malpractice Insurance Premiums? A Systematic Review of Estimates and the Methods Used to Produce Them
Kathryn Zeiler and Lorian Hardcastle
22. No-fault Accident Compensation Systems
Michael Trebilcock and Paul-Erik Veel
23. Alternatives and Complements: Liability and Regulation as Remedies for Physical Injury
Richard A. Epstein
Index
