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The Philosophical Foundations of Tort Law

David G. Owen

Abstract

This collection of 22 chapters on the philosophical fundamentals of tort law assembles many of the world’s leading commentators on this conjunction of law and philosophy. The contributions range broadly, from inquiries into how tort law derives from Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant to the latest economic and rights-based theories of legal responsibility. A closing chapter illuminates how tort law enables philosophers to observe the abstract theories of their discipline put to a concrete test in the legal resolution of real-world controversies based on principles of right and wrong.

Keywords: philosophical fundamentals, tort law, philosophy, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, rights-based theories, legal responsibility, moral philosophers, abstract theories

Bibliographic Information

Print publication date: 1997 Print ISBN-13: 9780198265795
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2012 DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198265795.001.0001

Authors

Affiliations are at time of print publication.

David G. Owen, editor
University of South Carolina

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Contents

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Front Matter

Title Pages

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Notes on Contributors

Foreword Why Philosophy Matters to Tort Law

DAVID G. OWEN

Part I The Nature and Realm of Tort Law and Philosophy

The Concept of a Civil Wrong

BIRKS PETER

The Practice of Corrective Justice

JULES L. COLEMAN

The Morality of Tort Law—Questions and Answers

TONY HONORÉ

Part II Principles and Values Underlying Tort Law

Wealth Maximization and Tort Law: A Philosophical Inquiry

RICHARD A. POSNER

The Uneasy Place of Principle in Tort Law

George C. Christie

Tort Law in the Aristotelian Tradition

JAMES GORDLEY

Right, Justice, and Tort Law

RICHARD W. WRIGHT

The Idea of Complementarity as a Philosophical Basis for Pluralism in Tort Law

IZHAK ENGLARD

Part III Philosophical Perspectives on Tort Law Problems

section A Responsibility and the Basis of Liability

Philosophical Foundations of Fault in Tort Law

DAVID G. OWEN

Intention in Tort Law

JOHN FINNIS

The Standards of Care in Negligence Law

RICHARD W. WRIGHT

The Seriousness of Harm Thesis for Abnormally Dangerous Activities

KEN KRESS

Aggregate Autonomy, the Difference Principle, and the Calabresian Approach to Products Liability

JOHN B. ATTANASIO

Section B: Connecting Agency and Harm: Risk, Causation, and Damage

Risk, Harm, and Responsibility

Stephen R. Perry

Causation, Compensation, and Moral Responsibility

CHRISTOPHER H. SCHROEDER

Necessary and Sufficient Conditions in Tort Law

TONY HONORÉ

Moments of Carelessness and Massive Loss

JEREMY WALDRON

Wrongdoing, Welfare, and Damages: Recovery for Non-Pecuniary Loss in Corrective Justice

BRUCE CHAPMAN

The Basis for Excluding Liability for Economic Loss in Tort Law

PETER BENSON

Section C Victim Responsibility for Harm

Contributory Negligence: Conceptual and Normative Issues

Kenneth W. Simons

Afterword What Has Philosophy to Learn from Tort Law?

BERNARD WILLIAMS

End Matter

Index