“We read with interest Professors John Goldberg and Benjamin Zipursky’s new book, Recognizing Wrongs; Professor Catherine Sharkey’s Book Review; and Goldberg and Zipursky’s Response. Their exchange demonstrates that the field of tort law is alive. But is it well? Goldberg and Zipursky (hereinafter GZ) and Sharkey put forward what are, at first glance, very different theories of tort law. GZ have updated their civil recourse theory to a theory of ‘wrongs and redress’. And that is good. But Sharkey maintains that there is still something missing from GZ’s theory: a convincing explanation of what constitutes a civil wrong. Sharkey casts the ‘cheapest cost avoider’ theory as ‘protagonist’, arguing that it and other instrumentalist theories of tort law are ‘paramount’, at least when it comes to modern torts, such as products liability …”
Guido Calabresi and Spencer Smith, On Tort Law’s Dualisms, 135 Harvard Law Review Form 184 (17 February).
First posted 2022-02-17 17:00:15
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