Environmental Justice “Light”? Transnational Tort Litigation in the Corporate Anthropocene

Mass tort litigation and inquisitorial justice.

Social and environmental litigation against transnational firms in Africa

As elsewhere in the world, Africa has experienced a rise in litigation against transnational corporations for adverse environmental and social impact. Cape plc and RTZ have been sued in British courts for environmental damage and for breach of employment rights in Africa. Companies which sold products to South Africa’s former apartheid regime, such as Fujitsu and IBM, are now being sued in US c...

Mass Tort Litigation : Asbestos

6 Mass Tort: A mass tort involves numerous plaintiffs filing civil lawsuits against one or a few 7 corporate defendants in state or federal court. The plaintiffs allege that they were harmed by 8 exposure to products produced by the defendants. Lawsuits may or may not be grouped in a class 9 action. Law firms representing plaintiffs in mass torts often use advertising to locate and recruit 10 p...

Genetic Data in Toxic Tort Litigation

There are major data gaps and uncertainties about the health risks of most potentially toxic substances. When the question in a toxic tort case is whether a particular toxic substance caused injury in a specific individual, the data gaps and uncertainties are even greater. Most disease conditions have multiple potential etiologies, and there is usually no direct evidence of which possible cause...

Tort Liability Litigation Costs for Commercial Claims

This article analyzes tort liability litigation costs using the Texas Department of Insurance Commercial Liability Insurance Closed Claim database for the years 1988–2004. Insurer costs to defend claims in which a suit was filed average $35,000 per claim in 2004$, which corresponds to a share of 0.18 of total expenditures. Claims with higher stakes and complexity lead to greater reliance on out...