Private Law Theory

Kenneth S Abraham and G Edward White, The Transformation of the Civil Trial and the Emergence of American Tort Law, Arizona Law Review (forthcoming), available at SSRN. There are a number of ways to tell the story of the change in American tort law that occurred in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Some, like John Witt, Lawrence Friedman, and Mort Horwitz, focus on changes in material conditions. Others, like Richard Posner, Charles Gregory, and Robert Rabin, focus on changes in intellectual or doctrinal beliefs about the nature of tort law, and the best mix of rules to achieve its ends. In The Transformation of the Civil Trial and the Emergence of American Tort Law Kenneth Abraham and Ted White offer a fascinating and, I think, unique explanation for the rise of modern negligence law and the development of doctrines that allowed victims of accidents to collect for their personal injuries … (more)

[Anthony Sebok, JOTWELL, 13 February]

First posted 2017-02-13 14:37:22