Document Type

Article

Publication Title

University of Chicago Law Review

Abstract

The tort liability and insurance system displays symptoms of potential crisis. These symptoms are most acute in the context of personal injuries caused by business, professional, and government enterprise activities. Liability insurance rates have increased sharply. In some fields, affordable insurance has not been available at all from commercial insurers. Very large jury verdicts are increasingly common. The threat of enormous tort liabilities has driven major corporations to bankruptcy. Concerns over liability exposure have led to withdrawal of vaccines and other medical products from the market. Administrative costs of the tort system in areas such as products liability, medical malpractice, and toxic torts far exceed the compensation provided the injured. The American Law Institute's Project on Compensation and Liability for Product and Process Injuries proposes to remedy this oversight by emphasizing comparative analysis of different institutions' performance in advancing the goals currently assigned to the tort system. This essay describes how such an analysis could help us to determine whether there is a crisis of tort law, and to the extent such a crisis exists, its appropriate institutional diagnosis and cure. The essay's conclusions are tentative and skeptical; but in our current situation these are likely to serve better than misplaced certainty.

First Page

184

DOI

https://doi.org/10.2307/1599718

Volume

54

Publication Date

1987

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