Torts without Particular Names

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

Preschoolers trust particular informants when learning new names and new morphological forms.

Across three studies, we investigated whether 4-year-olds would trust a previously reliable informant when learning novel morphological forms. In Experiment 1, children (N= 16) were presented with two informants: one who correctly named familiar objects and another who named them incorrectly. Children were invited to turn to these informants when learning novel labels and morphological forms. T...