TORTZ: A Study of American Tort Law is complete and revised for the coming academic year 2024-25.
The two-volume textbook is posted for free download from SSRN (vol. 1, vol. 2), and available in hardcopy from Lulu.com at cost, about $30 per volume plus shipping.
This final iteration of the book now, for the first time, includes its final three chapters: (16) interference and business torts, (17) government liability and civil rights, and (18) tort alternatives.
TORTZ TABLE OF CONTENTS
Volume 1
Chapter 1: Introduction
A. Welcome
B. The Fundamental Problem
C. Parameters
D. Etymology and Vocabulary
E. “The Pound Progression”
F. Alternatives
G. Review
Chapter 2: Intentional Torts
A. Introduction
B. Assault
1. History
2. The Restatement of Torts
3. Subjective and Objective Testing
4. Modern Rule
5. Transferred Intent
6. Statutory Torts and Harassment
C. Battery
1. Modern Rule
2. The Eggshell Plaintiff
3. Knowledge of a Substantially Certain Result
4. Common Law Evolution and Battered Woman Syndrome
D. False Imprisonment
1. Modern Rule
2. Problems
E. Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED)
1. Dynamic Intent
2. Modern Rule
3. The “Heart Balm” Torts
F. Fraud
1. Fraud in Context
2. Modern Rule
3. Pleading Fraud
4. Exercise
G. The “Process” Torts
1. Innate Imprecision
2. Modern Rule
3. Majority Rejection of Malicious Civil Prosecution
H. “Prima Facie Tort”
1. Origin of Intentional Tort
2. Modern Rule
Chapter 3: Defenses to Intentional Torts
A. Introduction
B. Defenses of Self, Other, and Property
C. The Spring Gun Case
D. Arrest Privilege and Merchant’s Privilege
E. Consent
1. Modern Rule
2. Scope of Consent
3. Medical Malpractice
4. Limits of Consent
F. Consent in Sport, or Recklessness
1. The Problem of Sport
2. Recklessness
Chapter 4: Negligence
A. Introduction
B. Modern Rule
C. Paradigmatic Cases
D. Historical and Theoretical Approaches to Negligence
1. Origin
2. Foreseeability
3. Custom
4. Augmented Standards
5. Economics
a. Introduction
b. “The Hand Formula”
c. Coase Theorem, Normativity, and Transaction Costs
6. Aristotelian Justice
7. Insurance and Loss-Spreading
E. Landowner Negligence, or Premises Liability
1. Theory of Duty and Standards of Breach
2. Common Law Tripartite Approach
3. Variations from the Unitary Approach in the Third Restatement
4. Applying the Framework, and Who Decides
F. Responsibility for Third-Party Conduct
1. Attenuated Causation, or “the Frances T. Problem”: Negligence Liability in Creating Opportunity for a Criminal or Tortious Actor
2. Vicarious Liability and Attenuated Causation in the Employment Context: Respondeat Superior and “Direct” Negligence Theories
G. Statutory Torts and Negligence Per Se
1. Statutory Torts
2. Negligence Per Se
a. Introduction
b. Threshold Test
c. Three Mile Island
H. Medical Negligence
I. Spoliation of Evidence
1. Introduction
2. Minority Rule
3. Recognition or Non-Recognition of the Tort Approach
4. Majority Approach
J. Beyond Negligence
Chapter 5: Defenses to Negligence
A. Express Assumption of Risk (EAOR)
B. EAOR in Medical Negligence, and the Informed Consent Tort
1. Development of the Doctrine
2. The “Reasonable Patient” Standard
3. Modern Rule of Informed Consent
4. Causation in Informed Consent
5. Experimental Medicine
C. “Implied Assumption of Risk” (IAOR)
1. Everyday Life
2. Twentieth-Century Rule
3. Play and Sport
4. Work
D. Contributory Negligence
1. Twentieth-Century Rule
2. Complete Defense
3. Vitiation by “Last Clear Chance”
E. Comparative Fault
F. IAOR in the Age of Comparative Fault
1. The Demise of “IAOR”
2. Whither “Secondary Reasonable IAOR”?
3. Revisiting Mrs. Palsgraf at Gulfway General Hospital
G. Statutes of Limitations
H. Imputation of Negligence
Chapter 6: Subjective Standards
A. Introduction
B. Gender
1. The Reasonable Family
2. When Gender Matters
C. Youth
1. When Youth Matters
2. Attractive Nuisance
3. When Youth Doesn’t Matter
D. Mental Limitations
1. General Approach
2. Disputed Policy
Chapter 7: Strict Liability
A. Categorical Approach
B. Non-Natural Use of Land
C. Abnormally Dangerous Activities
1. Defining the Class
2. Modern Industry
D. Product Liability
1. Adoption of Strict Liability
2. Modern Norms
3. “Big Tobacco”
4. Frontiers of Product Liability
Chapter 8: Necessity
A. The Malleable Concept of Necessity
B. Necessity in Tort Law
C. Making Sense of Vincent
D. Necessity, the Liability Theory
Chapter 9: Damages
A. Introduction
B. Vocabulary of Damages
C. Theory of Damages
D. Calculation of Damages
E. Valuation of Intangibles
F. Remittitur
G. Wrongful Death and Survival Claims
1. Historical Common Law
2. Modern Statutory Framework
a. Lord Campbell’s Act and Wrongful Death
b. Survival of Action After Death of a Party
3. Problems of Application
H. “Wrongful Birth” and “Wrongful Life”
I. Punitive Damages
1. Introduction
2. Modern Rule
3. Pinpointing the Standard
J. Rethinking Death Compensation
Volume 2
Chapter 10: Res Ipsa Loquitur
A. Basic Rules of Proof
B. Res Ipsa Loquitur (RIL)
1. Modern Rule
2. Paradigmatic Fact Patterns
Chapter 11: Multiple Liabilities
A. Introduction
B. Alternative Liability
C. Joint and Ancillary Liability
D. Market-Share Liability Theory
E. Indemnification, Contribution, and Apportionment
1. Active-Passive Indemnity
2. Contribution and Apportionment
3. Apportionment and the Effect of Settlement
F. Rules and Evolving Models in Liability and Enforcement
G. Review and Application of Models
Chapter 12: Attenuated Duty and Causation
A. Introduction
B. Negligence Per Se Redux
1. The Problem in Duty
2. The Problem in Causation
3. The Problem in Public Policy
C. Duty Relationships and Causation Timelines
1. Introduction
2. Frances T. Redux, or Intervening Criminal Acts
3. Mental Illness and Tarasoff Liability
4. Dram Shop and Social Host Liability
5. Rescue Doctrine and “the Fire Fighter Rule”
a. Inverse Rules of Duty
b. Application and Limits
6. Palsgraf: The Orbit and the Stream
a. The Classic Case
b. A Deeper Dig
D. Principles of Duty and Causation
1. Duty
2. Causation
a. The Story of Causation
b. Proximate Cause in the Second Restatement
c. Scope of Liability in the Third Restatement
d. Proximate Cause in the Third Restatement, and Holdover Rules
e. A Study of Transition: Doull v. Foster
E. The Outer Bounds of Tort Law
1. Balancing the Fundamental Elements
2. Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress (NIED)
a. Rule of No Liability
b. Bystanders and Borderline NIED
3. Economic Loss Rule
a. The Injury Requirement
b. Outer Limits of Tort Law
c. Loss in Product Liability and the Single Integrated Product Rule
Chapter 13: Affirmative Duty
A. Social Policy
B. The American Rule
C. Comparative Perspectives
D. Bystander Effect, or “Kitty Genovese Syndrome”
Chapter 14: Nuisance and Property Torts
A. Trespass and Conversion
B. Private Nuisance
C. Public Nuisance and the Distinction Between Private and Public
D. “Super Tort”
Chapter 15: Communication and Media Torts
A. Origin of “Media Torts”
B. Defamation
1. Framework and Rules
2. Defamation of Private Figures
a. Defamation Proof
b. Defamation Defense
3. Anti-SLAPP Defense
4. Section 230 Defense
5. Constitutional Defamation
a. Sea Change: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
b. Extending Sullivan
c. Reconsidering Sullivan
C. Invasion of Privacy
1. Framework and Rules
a. Disclosure
b. Intrusion
c. False Light
d. Right of Publicity
e. Data Protection
2. Constitutional Privacy and False Light
3. Demonstrative Cases
a. Disclosure and Intrusion
b. Right of Publicity
c. Bollea v. Gawker Media
4. Data Protection, Common Law, and Evolving Recognition of Dignitary Harms
Chapter 16: Interference and Business Torts
A. Business Torts in General
1. Tort Taxonomy
2. The Broad Landscape
3. Civil RICO
B. Wrongful Termination
C. Tortious Interference
Chapter 17: Government Liability and Civil Rights
A. Sovereign Immunity
1. Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) and Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA)
2. Text and History of the FTCA
3. Discretionary Function Immunity
B. Civil Rights
1. “Constitutional Tort”
2. Core Framework
3. Official Immunities
4. Climate Change
C. Qui Tam
D. Human Rights
1. Alien Tort Statute
2. Anti-Terrorism Laws
Chapter 18: Tort Alternatives
A. Worker Compensation
1. Introduction and History
2. Elements and Causation
3. Efficacy and Reform
B. Ad Hoc Compensation Funds
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