TortsProf Blog

JOTWELL Torts: Robinette on Keating on Tort Theory

At JOTWELL, I review Greg Keating's excellent book, Reasonableness and Risk.

JOTWELL Health Law: Sawicki on Fox & Lens on Valuing Reproductive Loss

At JOTWELL, Nadia Sawicki reviews Dov Fox and Jill Wieber Lens's Valuing Reproductive Loss.

JOTWELL Torts: Bernstein on Keren on Market Humiliation

At JOTWELL, Anita Bernstein reviews two related pieces by my colleague, Hila Keren, Market Humiliation and Beyond Discrimination:  Market Humiliation and Private Law.

Two by Lens

TortsProf Jill Wieber Lens (headed to Iowa) has gotten some nice attention at JOTWELL recently.  First, Philomila Tsoukala reviewed her piece (co-authored with Dov Fox), Valuing Reproductive Loss.  Second, Rebecca Zietlow reviewed her Fetal Life Hypocrisies (unpublished draft).

JOTWELL Torts: Engstrom on Parikh on Mass-Tort Financing

At JOTWELL, Nora Freeman Engstrom reviews Samir Parikh's Opaque Capital and Mass-Tort Financing.

JOTWELL Torts: Sebok on Abraham & Sharkey on Insurance and Tort Theory

At JOTWELL, Tony Sebok reviews Ken Abraham & Cathy Sharkey's The Glaring Gap in Tort Theory.

JOTWELL Torts: Simons on Gentry on Causation in Loss-of-Chance Cases

At JOTWELL, Ken Simons reviews Elissa Philip Gentry's Damned Causation.

JOTWELL Torts: Tilley on Obasogie & Newman on Colorblind Constitutional Torts

At JOTWELL, Cristina Tilley reviews Osagie Obasogie & Zachary Newman's Colorblind Constitutional Torts.  

JOTWELL Torts: Bublick on Volokh on the Right to Defy Criminal Demands

At JOTWELL, Elie Bublick reviews Eugene Volokh's The Right to Defy Criminal Demands.

JOTWELL Jurisprudence: Coyle on Rodriguez-Blanco on Negligence

At JOTWELL, Sean Coyle reviews Veronica Rodriquez-Blanco's Revising the Puzzle of Negligence:  Transforming the Citizen Towards Civil Maturity.

JOTWELL Torts: Goldberg on Volokh on Defamation by AI

At JOTWELL, John  Goldberg reviews Eugene Volokh's Large Libel Models?  Liability for AI Output.

Beswick on Liability of Judges for Wrongful Imprisonment

Over at New Private Law Blog, Sam Beswick covers "The Liability of Judges for Wrongful Imprisonment."  The lede:

Last month, the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Federal Court of Australia each gave judgments on lawsuits against sitting judges for abusing their contempt-of-court power. The US case arose after an Ohio Municipal Court Judge sentenced a spectator in his courtroom gallery to 10 days’ jail for refusing the judge’s unprompted demand that she take a drug test. She spent one night in prison during which she was subjected to pregnancy tests and full-body CAT scans. The Australian case concerned a Family Court judge in Queensland who began a hearing by accusing a self-represented litigant of not complying with disclosure orders, sentencing him to 12 months’ imprisonment in what the Federal Court characterized as “a gross parody of a court hearing” (¶129). The man spent a harrowing seven days in prison and became suicidal.

In both cases, the judges’ contempt orders were appealed and declared invalid. The Ohio Court of Appeals considered that the municipal judge had abused his discretion and violated the courtroom spectator’s due process rights. The Full Court of the Family Court of Australia described the Family Court judge’s hearing as “devoid of procedural fairness” and his order “an affront to justice” (¶9). The individuals in both cases sued the judges for their wrongful imprisonment. Their suits raised two issues: (1) whether the judges’ actions amounted to a violation of a right for which the plaintiffs had legal recourse; and (2) whether the judges’ judicial office immunized them from liability to the plaintiffs. The Sixth Circuit considered only issue (2) and dismissed the case before it as barred by the doctrine of absolute judicial immunity. The case before the Australian Federal Court, by contrast, succeeded: judicial immunity was rejected and the judge was held personally liable to pay damages for the tort of false imprisonment.

In my view, these two cases illustrate a divergence in principle underscoring the liability of public officers generally to civil suit. I explore this idea in a forthcoming article examining claims against police and prison officers: whereas immunity principles drive the adjudication of such suits in the United States, the principle of equality under ordinary law is the jurisprudential starting point in countries such as Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

JOTWELL Torts: Avraham on Gilboa, Kaplan & Sarel on Climate Change as Unjust Enrichment

At JOTWELL, Ronen Avraham reviews Maytal Gilboa, Yotam Kaplan & Roee Sarel's Climate Change as Unjust Enrichment.

JOTWELL Torts: Keating on Blankfein-Tabachnick & Kordana on Private Law Theory

At JOTWELL, Greg Keating reviews David Blankfein-Tabachnick & Kevin Kordana's On Rawlsian Contractualism and the Private Law.

JOTWELL Torts: Kendrick on Keating on Irreparable Injury and Deterrence

At JOTWELL, Leslie Kendrick reviews Greg Keating's Irreparable Injury and the Limits of the Law of Torts.

JOTWELL Torts: Robinette on Lahav on Products Liability History

At JOTWELL, I review Alexandra Lahav's A Revisionist History of Products Liability.

JOTWELL Torts: Engstrom on Jolly, Hans & Peck on Juries

At JOTWELL, Nora Freeman Engstrom reviews Richard Jolly, Valerie Hans & Robert Peck's The Civil Jury:  Reviving an American Institution.

Feedspot Top 20 Products Liability Blogs

The list is here.

JOTWELL Torts: Bernstein on Tenzer on Social Media

At JOTWELL, Anita Bernstein reviews Leslie Y. Garfield Tenzer's Social Media and the Common Law.

JOTWELL Torts: Wriggins on Gold on Mandatory Landlord Insurance

At JOTWELL, Jenny Wriggins reviews Allyson Gold's Insuring Justice.