this enigma that “how should tort law assign monetary values to human lives?” has preoccupied many legal scholars. in responding this question, two independent bodies of law try to redress the personal injuries in the united states;1-tort law, in which the courts use a case-specific numbers to assess damages, making individual differences crucial and 2-regulatory policy, that relies on a unifor...

In his landmark 1961 article, Some Thoughts on Risk Distribution and the Law of Torts, Judge Calabresi provides a theoretical framework for analyzing tort liability as a risk-spreading device that functions in a manner similar to insurance. In our article, we examine the insurance objective of tort liability from the standpoint of modern tort law. Since Calabresi’s foundational article, there h...

Throughout its history, the jury has attracted both stiff criticism and unqualified praise, viewed by turns as an incompetent, naïve, and biased decision maker and as an astute repository of folk wisdom and common sense. Here, we examine how the American jury actually behaves in the tort cases that produce the majority of civil jury trials. The evidence shows that juries usually use reasonable ...

Mass tort scholars, practitioners, and judges struggle with determining the most efficient approach to adjudicate sometimes tens of thousands of cases. Favoring class actions, mass tort scholars and judges have assumed that litigating any issue once is best. But while litigating any one issue could conceivably save attorneys’ fees and court resources, a single adjudication of thousands of mass ...

Thirteen states currently either mandate no-fault auto insurance or allow drivers to choose between no-fault and tort insurance. No-fault auto insurance requires individuals to carry personal injury protection (PIP) insurance that compensates them for economic losses sustained in automobile accidents, regardless of whoever is at fault, and prohibits individuals from suing for non-economic damag...