Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Law: Philosophy and the Law of Torts

When accidents occur and people suffer injuries, who ought to bear the loss? Tort law offers a complex set of rules to answer this question, but up to now philosophers have offered little by way of analysis of these rules. In eight essays commissioned for this volume, leading legal theorists examine the philosophical foundations of tort law. Amongst the questions they address are the following: how are the notions at the core of tort practice (such as responsibility, fault, negligence, due care, and duty to repair) to be understood? Is an explanation based on a conception of justice feasible? How are concerns of distributive and corrective justice related? What amounts to an adequate explanation of tort law? This collection will be of interest to professionals and advanced students working in philosophy of law, social theory, political theory, and law, as well as anyone seeking a better understanding of tort law.

Contributors; 1. Introduction: search for an explanatory theory of torts Gerald J. Postema; 2. A social contract conception of the tort law of accidents Gregory C. Keating; 3. Responsibility for outcomes, risk and the law of torts Stephen R. Perry; 4. The significance of doing and suffering Martin Stone; 5. Tort law and tort theory: preliminary reflections on method Jules Coleman; 6. Corrective justice in an age of mass torts Arthur Ripstein and Benjamin C. Zipursky; 7. Economics, moral philosophy and the positive analysis of tort law Mark Geistfeld; 8. Pluralism in tort and accident law: towards a reasonable accommodation Bruce Chapman; References; Index.