In his recent article, “Liability Rules When Injurers as Well as Victims Suffer Losses,“’ Avon Leong examines the question whether the standard liability rules-pure negligence, negligence with contributory negligence, pure strict liability and strict liability with contributory negligence-can be used to induce efficient care-taking by individuals in those circumstances where both injurers’ and ...

This paper shows that polluters who underestimate environmental harm might invest excessively in promoting technological change in pollution control under environmental liability law. Neither strict liability nor negligence can prevent such a distortion. However, we define a second best due care standard under negligence that induces a welfare superior R&D equilibrium. If, on the other hand, po...

This paper modifies the standard tort model by introducing role-type uncertainty, that is, it is assumed that neither party knows in advance whether she will become the victim or the injurer when an accident occurs. When the standards of care of the two parties are assumed to be set at the socially optimal levels, only pure comparative negligence and the equal division rule guarantee efficiency...