Interpreting torts, explaining contracts
Article Abstract:
Jules L. Coleman's analysis of torts and contracts in 'Risks and Wrongs' contains some helpful insights as well as some flaws. His account of the market system as facilitating cooperation among heterogeneous individuals, his use of efficiency analysis to resolve theoretical conflicts in contract law and several aspects of his analysis of tort law are particularly illuminating. Problems include the small scope of his account of tort law and an inadequate account of contracting behavior in relation to contract law. More attention to methodological issues would have enhanced Coleman's argument.
Publication Name: Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
Subject: Political science
ISSN: 0193-4872
Year: 1992
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Rational contractarianism, corrective justice, and tort law
Article Abstract:
Jules L. Coleman in 'Risks and Wrongs' advocates a rational contractarian political theory while rejecting the market paradigm; he also rejects Kaldor-Hicks efficiency as a normative standard for evaluating tort law, but stops short of advocating corrective justice as an alternative standard. However, the idealistic assumptions of rational contractarianism are unrealistic, and Coleman's critique of the economic analysis of tort law is not fully developed. Tort law practices such as proportional fault cannot be justified according to principles of corrective justice.
Publication Name: Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
Subject: Political science
ISSN: 0193-4872
Year: 1992
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Jules and the tortist
Article Abstract:
Jules L. Coleman's 'Risks and Wrongs' raises questions concerning rationality in relation to contractarianism and concerning rational contractarianism in relation to tort law. Coleman's account of individual rationality is flawed, in that he confuses conditions related to bargaining outcomes with conditions related to choice. He also draws a questionable distinction between individual and collective rationality. His account of tort law in terms of corrective justice does not improve on the rational contractarian view.
Publication Name: Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
Subject: Political science
ISSN: 0193-4872
Year: 1992
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Putting the ecological modernisation thesis to the test: the promises and performances of urban recycling. Ecological Modernisation, environmental knowledge and national character: a preliminary analysis of the Netherlands
- Abstracts: Jules Coleman and corrective justice in tort law: a critique and reformulation. Foreword: Coleman and corrective justice