Privacy in Tort Law: Were Warren and Brandeis Wrong?

The Limits of Tort Privacy

The conception of tort privacy developed by Warren, Brandeis, and Prosser sits at the heart of American understandings of privacy law. Rooted in protection of private information against unwanted collection, use, and disclosure, tort privacy protects against emotional injury and was directed by design against disclosures of true, embarrassing facts by the media. In this essay, I argue that as c...

Modern Tort Law Demystified

Innovation , tort law , and competition

In this paper, we examine the link between innovative activity on the part of firms, the competitive pressure to introduce innovations and optimal damages awards. While innovative activity brings forth valuable new products for consumers, competitive pressure in the ensuing innovation race induces firms to launch innovations too early, thereby raising the likelihood of severe product risks abov...

Serious Tort Law Reform

Tort law is a form of collective intervention into social and economic affairs that carries with it substantial costs, both public and private. These costs include higher prices for goods and services, higher taxes, and the socially undesirable consequences that tort law has on people's behavior such as the failure of companies to develop and introduce products the public wants, the wasteful an...

The Social Foundations of Privacy: Community and Self in the Common Law Tort