In the mid 1980s, there was a crisis in the availability, affordability, and adequacy of liability insurance in the United States and Canada. Mass tort claims such as the asbestos, DES, and Agent Orange litigation generated widespread public attention, and the tort system came to assume a heightened prominence in American life. While some scholars debate whether or not any such crisis still exists, there has been an increasing political, judicial and academic questioning of the goals and future of the tort system.
Exploring the Domain of Tort Law reviews the evidence on the efficacy of the tort system and its alternatives. By looking at empirical evidence in five major categories of accidents--automobile, medical malpractice, product-related accidents, environmental injuries, and workplace injuries--the authors evaluate the degree to which the tort system conforms to three normative goals: deterrence, corrective justice, and distributive justice. In each case, the authors review the deterrence and compensatory properties of the tort system, and then review parallel bodies of evidence on regulatory, penal, and compensatory alternatives.
Most of the academic literature on the tort system has traditionally been doctrinal or, in recent years, highly theoretical. Very little of this literature provides an in-depth consideration of how the system works, and whether or not there are any feasible alternatives. Exploring the Domain of TortLaw contributes valuable new evidence to the tort law reform debate. It will be of interest to academic lawyers and economists, policy analysts, policy professionals in government and research organizations, and all those affected by tort law reform.

This book focuses on the analysis of liability rules of tort law from an efficiency perspective, presenting a comprehensive analysis of these rules in a self-contained and rigorous yet accessible manner. It establishes general results on the efficiency of liability rules, including complete characterizations of efficient liability rules and efficient incremental liability rules. The book also establishes that the untaken precaution approach and decoupled liability are incompatible with efficiency. The economic analysis of tort law has established that for efficiency it is necessary that each party to the interaction must be made to internalize the harm resulting from the interaction. The characterization and impossibility theorems presented in this book establish that, in addition to internalization of the harm by each party, there are two additional requirements for efficiency. Firstly, rules must be immune from strategic manipulation. Secondly, rules must entail closure with respect to the parties involved in the interaction giving rise to the negative externality, i.e., the liability must not be decoupled.

This book shows the surprising dynamism of the field of civil procedure through its examination of a cross section of recent developments within civil procedure from around the world. It explores the field through specific approaches to its study, within specific legal systems, and within discrete sub-fields of civil procedure. The book reflects the latest research and conveys the dynamism and innovations of modern civil procedure - by field, method and system. The book's introductory chapters lay the groundwork for researchers to appreciate the flux and change within the field. The concluding chapters bring the many different identified innovations and developments together to show the field's ability to adapt to modern circumstances, while retaining its coherence even across different legal systems, traditions, fields and analytic approaches. Specifically, in this book the presence of dynamism is explored in the legal systems of the EU, France, the US, Brazil, Australia, the UK and China. So too that dynamism is explored in the contributions' analyses and discussions of the changes or need for change of specific aspects of civil procedure including litigation costs, class actions, derivative actions, pleadings, and res judicata. Furthermore, most of the individual contributions may be considered to be comparative analyses of their respective subjects and, when considered as a whole, the book presents the dynamism of civil procedure in comparative perspective. Those discrete and aggregated comparative analyses permit us to better understand the dynamism in civil procedure - for change in the abstract can be less visible and its significance and impact less evident. While similar conclusions may have been drawn through examinations in isolation, employing comparative analytic methods provided a richer analysis and any identified need for change is correspondingly advanced through comparative analysis. Furthermore, if that analysis leads to a conclusion that change is necessary then comparative law may provide pertinent examples for such change - as well as methodologies for successfully transplanting any such changes. In other words, as this book so well reflects, comparative law may itself usefully contribute to dynamism in civil procedure. This has long been a raison d'etre of comparative law and, as clear from this book's contributions, in this particular time and field of study we find that it is very likely to achieve its lofty promise.

A thought-provoking analysis of remedies for breach of contract, this book examines the commitment of English law to the protection of contractual performance. It considers specific remedies, termination, compensatory damages, gain-based monetary awards, punitive damages, and contractually negotiated remedies. It also looks forward by considering how the protection of performance could be strengthened in the future. The book approaches English law remedies for breach of contract through the comparative study of French law, which offers significant scope for informative contrast. It sheds new light on contractual remedies in both jurisdictions and challenges fundamental aspects of English law in this area. With coverage of lively academic debates and recent developments in the case law on both sides of the Channel, the book discusses topical issues. There is also commentary on aspects of two recent far-reaching reform projects relating to the French Civil code and of the Draft Common Frame of Reference. Indispensable reading for private lawyers from common and civil law backgrounds with an interest in remedies for breach of contract, whether comparatists or not, the book should prove to be an invaluable resource for students, academics and practitioners on the current state and future reform of the law in this area.

When potential litigants first approach a lawyer they are generally interested in finding out one thing only: are they likely to be able to win damages or any other kind of remedy and what kind of quantum of damages are they likely to receive? It becomes the lawyer's main task to try to argue for a remedy and to persuade the court that the plaintiff has a good cause of action. Textbooks about contract and tort frequently treat damages and other remedies as an after-thought when in fact it is the issue of remedies which is a constant and ever-present consideration for the plaintiff and his or her lawyer. This new book, containing contributions from many of the UK's leading specialists, brings to the fore a range of issues which are of topical interest to litigators and to teachers of law. In some instances the issues are currently the subject of reform proposals and these essays usefully highlight the principal issues facing the reformers and the objections which have been raised by those opposed to reform. In addition four of the essays tackle a strand of tort law which is of rapidly growing importance - the area of professional negligence. The contributors are among the best-known writers in this field and their essays combine practical and academic perspectives which usefully highlight contemporary trends in professional negligence litigation. The first chapter in the book also offers a unique and controversial overview of tort law in the UK by Professor Patrick Atiyah, who argues for a complete rethink of the system of personal injuries litigation in the UK, starting with its abolition. Not for the first time, Professor Atiyah thinks the unthinkable.

This book is about the law of remedies. It establishes the boundaries of this discrete area of law and provides a new classification of remedies. Zakrzewski first examines the difficulties of the term 'remedy', and identifies the most robust notion of a remedy. Remedies are broadly approximated to court orders; more strictly, they are the rights arising from these orders. This enables a rigorous separation of remedies from substantive rights, that is, rights which exist before the making of a court order. The author then reviews established classifications of remedies, showing how they are seriously deficient and developing a new taxonomy based upon the relationship between substantive rights and remedies. This provides a much better understanding of that relationship, especially of the role of judicial discretion in the granting of remedies. The book then moves on to provide an overview of remedies in private law within the new analytical framework. It shows how each order that may be made by a court in a civil case gives effect to the substantive rights of the parties to the dispute. Particular primary and secondary (or remedial) rights, such as rights to damages, are carefully disentangled from the remedies which effectuate them, and the similarities and differences between various remedies are revealed. This book provides a new way to view remedies and substantive rights. It insists that the law of remedies must not reproduce parts of the law of substantive rights under a different name. For the first time, remedies are established as a stable and distinct area of law.

"Choice" Outstanding Academic Title 2003

.,."A thorough summary of the trajectory of current case law on the legal regulation of U.S. citizens' intimate lives. . . . A valuable introduction to increasingly important and salient legal questions about the constitutional limits on the state's ability to shape intimate lives in the United States."
--" Political Science Quarterly"

.,."A worthy assessment of the law of intimate association and personal decision-making. For those intrigued by the Court's human side, Ball provides a sufficient glimpse without raising the curtain on its realm of privacy that the justices have strived to protect.
-- "Trial"

"Despite the controversial content of many of the cases, Mr. Ball maintains an air of bemused detachment and does not openly take sides. This is not a polemic. With few exceptions, the prevailing tone is light and scholarly. The goal is to illuminate, not to persuade."
--"New York Law Journal"

"In this truly fascinating and spellbinding work, Ball tells many tales."
-- "Choice"

Personal rights, such as the right to procreate--or not--and the right to die generate endless debate. This book maps out the legal, political, and ethical issues swirling around personal rights. Howard Ball shows how the Supreme Court has grappled with the right to reproduce and to abort, and takes on the issue of auto-euthanasia and assisted suicide, from Karen Ann Quinlan through Kevorkian and just recently to the Florida case of the woman who was paralyzed by a gunshot from her mother and who had the plug pulled on herself.

For the last half of the twentieth century, the justices of the Supreme Court have had to wrestle with newand difficult life and death questions for them as well as for doctors and their patients, medical ethicists, sociologists, medical practitioners, clergy, philosophers, law makers, and judges. The Supreme Court in the Intimate Lives of Americans offers a look at these issues as they emerged and examines the manner in which the men and women of the U.S. Supreme Court addressed them.

"Bogus uses product liability cases --common law cases-- to show how lawsuits, or even the threat of lawsuits, have made businesses change the way they operate, to the benefit of society."
--"Journal of the West"

"Compelling . . . Bogus presents a persuasive corrective to the distorted and factually incorrect arguments of those who seek to prevent victims from shifting the cost of accidents and injuries to responsible wrongdoers. If any book was needed to contribute to that side of the national debate, this is the one."
--"Bar Reporter"

"A sophisticated study that makes an important contribution to discussions of the civil justice system"
--"Trial"

"Debunks the horror stories about irrational punitive-damage awards . . . Bogus's convincing, sustained argument will make a useful contribution to an important national debate."
--"Publishers Weekly"

"Compelling arguments. . . . This book provides an important perspective on a timely issue, and its engaging style makes it suitable for a broad audience."
--"Harvard Law Review"

Judging by the frequency with which it makes an appearance in television news shows and late night stand up routines, the frivolous lawsuit has become part and parcel of our national culture. A woman sues McDonald's because she was scalded when she spilled her coffee. Thousands file lawsuits claiming they were injured by Agent Orange, silicone breast implants, or Bendectin although scientists report these substances do not cause the diseases in question. The United States, conventional wisdom has it, is a hyperlitigious society, propelled by avaricious lawyers, harebrained judges, and runaway juries. Lawsuits waste money and time and, moreover, many are simply groundless.

Carl T. Bogus is not so sure. In Why Lawsuits Are Good for America, Bogus argues that common law works far better than commonly understood. Indeed, Bogus contends that while the system can and occasionally does produce "wrong" results, it is very difficult for it to make flatly irrational decisions. Blending history, theory, empirical data, and colorful case studies, Bogus explains why the common law, rather than being outdated, may be more necessary than ever.

As Bogus sees it, the common law is an essential adjunct to governmental regulation--essential, in part, because it is not as easily manipulated by big business. Meanwhile, big business has launched an all out war on the common law. "Tort reform"--measures designed to make more difficult for individuals to sue corporations--one of the ten proposals in the Republican Contract With America, and George W. Bush's first major initiative as Governor of Texas. And much of what we have come to believe about the system comes from a coordinated propaganda effort by big business and its allies.

Bogus makes a compelling case for the necessity of safeguarding the system from current assaults. Why Lawsuits Are Good for America provides broad historical overviews of the development of American common law, torts, products liability, as well as fresh and provocative arguments about the role of the system of "disciplined democracy" in the twenty-first century.

Fourth in the popular and well-regarded SPTL seminar series, this book explores the concepts of privacy and loyalty in the law of obligations. Privacy and fiduciary obligations are two very topical subjects. The contributions include: "Privacy as a Constitutional Right and Value" by Eric Barendt; "Comparative Rights of Privacy of Public Figures" by Basil Markesinis and Nico Nolte; and "Constructive Fiduciaries?" by Lionel Smith. These essays combine practical and academic perspectives which highlight contemporary trends in the law of obligations. In addition to the essays, there is an extended editor's introduction by Peter Birks, a recognized expert in this field.

Courts have the right to compel non-parties to give evidence or produce documents in aid of litigation and arbitration proceedings. As well as providing a clear statement of the law relating to witness summonses, letters of request and the European Taking of Evidence Regulation, this book gives practical guidance with use of checklists, for example on the issues arising in drafting and defending letters of request and conducting or advising at a hearing of a deposition under a letter of request. The book considers how regulation from outside England and Wales affects compelled evidence, explaining the European Taking of Evidence Regulation and its similarities and differences to the Hague Convention. As well as giving guidance on compelling evidence from abroad in aid of English proceedings, with reference to the different procedures applicable in relation to different countries, the book also addresses cases where evidence is compelled in England for use in foreign proceedings and where evidence is compelled within England and Wales for use in domestic cases; identifying the common principles which underpin the different areas and key differences to consider. Finally, the book addresses related jurisdictions including CPR 31.17 (third party disclosure), Bankers' Books Evidence Act, and evidence in aid of arbitrations and CPR 71 (cross examination of judgment debtor). Clearly structured to contain the law, procedure, and relevant source materials, this book provides an invaluable and single point of reference to bring clarity and detail to a previously obscure and under-resourced area of the law. With a Foreword by Mr Justice Andrew Smith.

Whether assessing general family functioning or specific areas of conflict, professionals preparing child custody evaluations require sound knowledge of three interrelated fields: up-to-date legal issues, psychological findings, and forensic procedures. This book covers these three essential areas to walk readers through the evaluation process clearly and concisely. It further provides a unique combination of legal guidelines with social science research.

Theft, deception, bribery, rogue trading and money laundering present massive and apparently insuperable problems for governments worldwide. On a national and international scale, these types of activities may have social, economic and political repercussions. This new book is primarily concerned with the impact of these activities upon private individuals. The text analyses the position of the victim, the fraudster, recipients of property and accessories. The focus is upon the civil law aspects of fraud and the increasing significance of money laundering legislation and the law of human rights. The main theme of this book is an examination of the extent to which fraudulent activity triggers special rules which are exceptions to the general principles of civil law. There is the further question of the extent to which theft and fraud affect transactions which are interlinked. Policy issues are weighed in the balance, such as the protection of property rights against the need to ensure the free circulation of goods and the security of good faith purchase, and the demand for certainty in the law against the need to deter fraud.

In this book, 78 leading attorneys in California and New York describe how they evaluate, negotiate and resolve litigation cases. Selected for their demonstrated skill in predicting trial outcomes and knowing when cases should be settled or taken to trial, these attorneys identify the key factors in case evaluation and share successful strategies in pre-trial discovery, negotiation, mediation, and trials. Integrating law and psychology, the book shows how skilled attorneys mentally frame cases, understand jurors' perspectives, develop persuasive themes and arguments and achieve exceptional results for clients.

In dem Handbuch werden alle relevanten Anspruchsgrundlagen und Problemfelder bei schadigendem Verhalten der oeffentlichen Hand (Bund, Lander und Gemeinden mit allen Untergliederungen) verstandlich, umfassend und systematisch dargestellt. Erlautert werden Anspruche aus Amts- und Staatshaftung wie auch aus Enteignung, Aufopferung sowie sonstige Ersatz- und Ausgleichsanspruche. Der Band orientiert sich vorwiegend an der hoechst- und obergerichtlichen Rechtsprechung und liefert Hinweise auf entsprechende Regelungen in Europa und in anderen Landern.

This book charts the historical and current interaction between lawyers and mediation in both the common law and civil law world and analyses a number of issues relevant to lawyers' part in the process. Lawyers have in the past and continue to play many roles in the context of mediation. While some are champions for the process, many remain on the fringes and apathetic, while others are openly sceptical or even anti-mediation in their stance. Yet others may have embraced mediation but, it is argued, for cynical, disingenuous reasons. By reviewing existing empirical evidence on lawyers' interactions with mediation and by examining historical and current trends in lawyers' dalliance with mediation, this book seeks to shed new light on a number of related issues, including: lawyers' resistance to mediation; lawyers' motives for involvement with mediation; the appropriateness of lawyers acting as mediators and party representatives; and the impact that both lawyers and the increasing institutionalisation of mediation have had on the normative form of the process, as well as the impact that mediation experience heralds for lawyers and legal systems in general.

This book addresses an experiment in funding money damage claims in England from 2000 to 2013. The model - recoverable conditional fees - was unique and has remained so. It covers the development, amendment and effective abolition of the model, as well as the process of policy development and the motivation and objectives of the policy makers.

The debate concerning the desirability and modes of harmonisation of European Private Law (EPL) has, until now, been mainly concerned with substantive rules. The link between rules and institutions suggests that governance of both the process of harmonisation and its outcome is necessary. This book covers various perspectives on the challenge of designing governance for EPL: the implications of a multi-level system in terms of competences, the interplay between market integration and regulation, the legitimacy of private law making, the importance of self-regulation, the usefulness of conflict of law rules, the role of intergovernmental institutions, and the aftermath of enlargement. In addressing these, the book's achievements are to successfully link two areas of scholarship that have so far remained separate, EPL and new modes of governance, and to address institutional reforms. The contributions offer different proposals to improve governance: the creation of a European Law institute, the improvement of judicial cooperation among national courts, the use of committees for implementation of EPL. Suggesting practical institutional reforms that can improve the process of Europeanisation of private law, this book will be of great interest to scholars of law, politics, political science, sociology and economics. It will also appeal to policymakers, and members of both European institutions and national institutions dealing with European matters.

This book presents a concise account of the English system of civil litigation, covering court proceedings in England and Wales. It is an original and important study of a system which is the historical root of the US litigation system. The volume offers a comprehensive and properly balanced account of the entire range of dispute resolution techniques.
As the first book on this subject to be published in the USA, it enables American lawyers to gain an overview of the main institutions of English Civil Procedure, including mediation and arbitration. It will render the English system of civil justice accessible to law students in the US, practitioners of law, professors, judges, and policy-makers.

The increasing role that NGOs play at different levels of legal relevance - from treaty-making to rule implementation, and from support to judges to aid delivery - calls for reconsideration of the international legal status of those organizations. This book shows that the degree of flexibility currently enjoyed by NGOs in fields as varied as human rights, the environment and the European Union development cooperation policy constitutes the best arena for all actors involved, with the consequences that the instances where more strict regulation of NGOs' participation is desirable are very limited. With each chapter focusing on a different modality of NGO participation in international affairs (from formalised legal statuses to informal ways of dealing with issues of international relevance), this book will be of great interest to academics specialised in international law, political scientists, international officials working for both international organisations and non-governmental organisations, and legal practitioners (legal counsels of international organisations, lawyers and judges).

Revised and updated to include the latest Supreme Court decisions, this classic text, now in its tenth edition, provides a concise overview of the judiciary in general and the Supreme Court in particular. The only book available that combines theory and practice of the judicial process with civil rights and liberties, The Judiciary acquaints students with the intricacies of our courts, the people who compose them, and their relationship to other branches of government, as well as to individuals and groups.

The number of books and articles dealing with various aspects of World War II has increased at a phenomenal rate since the end of the hostilities. Perhaps no other chapter in this bloodiest of all wars has received as much attention as the Holo caust. The Nazis' program for the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" - this ideologically conceived, diabolical plan for the physicalliquidation of European Jewry - has emerged as a subject of agonizing and intense interest to laypersons and scholars alike. The centrality of the Holocaust in the study of the Third Reich and the Nazi phenomenon is almost universally recognized. The source materials for many of the books published during the immediate postwar period were the notes and diaries kept by many camp and ghetto dwellers, who were sustained during their unbelievable ordeal by the unusual drive to bear witness. These were supplemented after the liberation by a large number of personal narratives collected from survivors alI over Europe. Understandably, the books published shortly after the war ended were mainly martyrological and lachrymological, reflecting the trauma of the Holocaust at the personal, individual level. These were soon followed by a considerable number of books dealing with the moral and religious questions revolving around the role ofthe lay and spiritual leaders of the doomed Jewish communities, especially those involved in the Jewish Councils, as well as God' s responsibility toward the "chosen people."

This book is addressed to practitioners and for the first time, offers a broad comparative overview of current legal provisions regarding employee ownership stakes in Europe.

The volume describes and analyzes how the costs of litigation in civil procedure are distributed in key countries around the world. It compares the various approaches, draws general conclusions from that comparison, and presents global trends as well as common problems and solutions. In particular, the book deals with three principal questions: First, who pays for civil litigation costs, i.e., to what extent do losers have to make winners whole? Second, how much money is at stake, i.e., how expensive is civil litigation in the respective jurisdictions? And third, whose money is ultimately spent, i.e., how are civil litigation costs distributed through mechanisms like legal aid, litigation insurance, collective actions, and success oriented fees? Inter alia, the study reveals a general trend towards deregulation of lawyer fees as well as a substantial correlation between the burden of litigation costs and membership of a jurisdiction in the civil and common law families. This study is the result of the XVIIIth World Congress of Comparative Law held under the auspices of the International Academy of Comparative Law.