Torts to Expectancies in Decedents' Estates

Industrial Estates

Environmental regulators have access to a large set of policy tools and instruments to create incentives for industrial facilities to abate pollution. Command and control is one approach where pollution standards for emissions or effluence are set, and fines and penalties are assessed against non-compliant facilities. Other options include pollution charges, tradable permits, voluntary particip...

Hormesis and toxic torts.

Policy implementation of hormesis has to date focused on regulatory applications. Toxic-tort litigation may provide an alternative policy venue for real-world applications of hormesis. Businesses and government entities, who are sued by individuals claiming to have been injured by exposure to very low levels of toxic substances may defend those cases by deploying hormesis to argue that such exp...

Virginia Torts Case Finder

Torts and innovation.

This Essay exposes and analyzes a hitherto overlooked cost of tort law: its adverse effect on innovation. Tort liability for negligence, defective products, and medical malpractice is determined by reference to custom. We demonstrate that courts' reliance on custom and conventional technologies as the benchmark of liability chills innovation and distorts its path. Specifically, recourse to cust...

The Future of Mass Torts