TortsProf Blog

Maxeiner: Failures of American Civil Justice in International Perspective

James Maxeiner (Baltimore) has published Failures of American Civil Justice in International Perspective.  It is available from Amazon.  The description:

Civil justice in the United States is neither civil nor just. Instead it embodies a maxim that the American legal system is a paragon of legal process which assures its citizens a fair and equal treatment under the law. Long have critics recognized the system's failings while offering abundant criticism but few solutions. This book provides a comparative-critical introduction to civil justice systems in the United States, Germany, and Korea. It shows the shortcomings of the American system and compares them with German and Korean successes in implementing the rule of law. The author argues that these shortcomings could easily be fixed if the American legal systems were open to seeing how other legal systems' civil justice processes handle cases more efficiently and fairly. Far from being a treatise for specialists, this book is an introductory text for civil justice in the three aforementioned legal systems. It is intended to be accessible to people with a general knowledge of a modern legal system.

--CJR

Some Self-Promotion and a Request

We are pleased to report that TortsProf has been named one of the 25 top torts blogs by LexisNexis.  You can see the announcement and learn how to vote (and, uh, could you vote for us?) at their site.

Alcohol and the Restatement of Torts

What did the drafters of the Restatement (Second) of Torts drink as they prepared it?  Kyle Graham has answers at Co-Op. 

--CJR

Shapo on Highlights of Torts Scholarship and Cases

Marshall Shapo (Northwestern) has posted to SSRN An Essay on Torts:  States of Argument.  The abstract provides:

This essay summarizes high points in torts scholarship and case law over a period of two generations, highlighting the “states of argument” that have characterized tort law over that period. It intertwines doctrine and policy. Its doctrinal features include the traditional spectrum of tort liability, the duty question, problems of proof, and the relative incoherency of damages rules. Noting the cross-doctrinal role of tort as a solver of functional problems, it focuses on major issues in products liability and medical malpractice. The essay discusses such elements of policy as the role of power in tort law, the tension between communitarianism and individualism, and the inherent limits of private law. It offers both comparisons and contrasts from the most wrenchingly generated non-tort compensation system, the September 11th Fund. Finally raising the question of the extent to which courts judging difficult tort cases can truly be dispassionate, it suggests that the state of tort law remains one of argument, constantly requiring judgment.

--CJR

Empathy's Dividends

Letters to the editor are not frequently linked here, but I found this one from the Raleigh News & Observer to merit attention.  It's written by a med mal defense lawyer in praise of empathy.

--CJR