The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear arguments in a case that tests a philosophical question at the heart of modern tort law: If the cost of pursuing a lawsuit exceeds its value to an individual plaintiff, is that a bad thing?
These cases and many more like them are to be found at Overlawyered.com, a collection of tort law absurdities maintained by author and Manhattan Institute fellow Walter Olson.
Birth control drugs, for example, "are very low-risk but attract a huge amount of litigation because people don't perceive the benefits to be as great, " says Edward Richards, a professor of tort law at Louisiana State University.
The tree trunks, exposed banks and other hazards whizzing past represent a cornucopia of potential tort suits under U.S. law, yet somehow the Swiss manage to operate these runs without being sued into oblivion.
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There are foreseeable risks, and a duty to inform people of those risks that is fundamental tort law in America.
Reinvigorate the rule of law through tort reform and get the Federal Reserve on a rational track again, and the economy can still leap from strength to new strength.
The dance Illinois courts are doing around these cases is puzzling since tort law in most parts of the country is clear on a few essential elements.
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On June 20, 2011 a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision demonstrating the way in which the U.S. legal system continues to struggle with the digital revolution, a revolution that is undermining securities regulation, intellectual property law, and even the basics of tort law.
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Assuming it makes sense to create a workplace cause of action for intentionally inflicted emotional distress that does not meet the requirements of the common law tort, this bill, with its ill-defined and hopelessly broad restrictions on workplace conduct was not the measure to do it.
The law under which Mr Karadzic has been sued is known as the Alien Tort Claims Act, originally a part of the Judiciary Act of 1789.
You also don't need to be a libertarian to demand that any new intervention meet this burden of proof: It will accomplish something that tort law and enforcement of basic laws against force, fraud and collusion do not accomplish.
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