Recent developments in products liability law in the USA

1991 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Peter B. Maggs
Keyword(s):  
Products Liability ◽  
Liability Law ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Usa

scholarly journals Would a Warning Have Prevented the Accident?

1986 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheree Gibson-Harris
Keyword(s):  
Case Law ◽  
Product Safety ◽  
Tort Reform ◽  
Property Damage ◽  
Accident Investigation ◽  
Products Liability ◽  
Liability Law ◽  
Design And Manufacturing ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Sound Management

After products liability tort reform has run its course, and the insurance crisis has been resolved, manufacturers will still be held responsible for defective products that fail prematurely causing injury, property damage and commercial loss. This products liability responsibility has two aspects which should be clearly distinguished by forensic engineers. The first, has little to do with recent developments in products liability law and simply involves a forensic engineers understanding of the more traditional factors that result in safe, quality products, through the establishment within the company of sound management, design and manufacturing practices. The second aspect of effective accident investigation, litigation or consulting with industry, demands an understanding of the concepts and trends in products liability case law as it relates to the product safety and liability responsibility of manufacturers. The following paper describes some of the concepts of products l

Products Liability Law – Lessons from the Military and Industrial Contexts

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-322
Author(s):  
Nathan A. Schachtman
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
State Court ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Industrial Products ◽  
Products Liability ◽  
Product Use ◽  
Liability Law ◽  
Industrial Settings ◽  
The Military

AbstractThe policy bases for American products liability law have developed largely through a series of state court cases that involved products sold to ordinary consumers. These cases featured significant disparities between manufacturers and injured consumers in understanding latent risks from product use, and in their ability to avoid the risks and to absorb and to distribute the costs of the risks. The policy bases that appear cogent for consumer products fail to explain or justify the imposition of liability in many industrial settings, which involve military or industrial customers that are well aware of the products’ latent risks and that have moral, common law, statutory, and regulatory duties to ensure that the industrial products are used safely.

Recent Developments in Composite Construction in the USA

2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto T. Leon
Keyword(s):  
Reinforced Concrete ◽  
Design Procedure ◽  
Concrete Columns ◽  
Short Description ◽  
Smooth Transition ◽  
American Institute ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Column Design ◽  
Main Change

This paper presents an overview of the proposed changes in composite design provisions for the upcoming American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) 2005 Specification. The main change insofar as member design is concerned relates to how composite column design is handled. The new provisions will provide a more smooth transition between design of composite and reinforced concrete columns and a more rational, mechanistically-based design procedure. Insofar as member detailing is concerned, the main change is in the strength values for shear studs, which have been considerably lowered under some circumstances. The paper also presents some ongoing developments in composite floor and lateral load resisting systems, and concludes with a short description of an unusual composite truss.

Product Liability

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fairgrieve Duncan ◽  
Richard Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Strict Liability ◽  
Product Liability ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Financial Loss ◽  
Liability Law ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Product Liability is a recognised authority in the field and covers the product liability laws through which manufacturers, retailers, and others may be held liable to compensate persons who are injured, or who incur financial loss, when the products which they manufacture or sell are defective or not fit for their purpose. Product defects may originate in the production process, be one of design, or be grounded in a failure to issue an adequate warning or directions for safe use and practitioners advising business clients or claimants will find this book provides all the necessary information for practitioners to manage a product liability claim. This new edition has been fully updated to take account of 10 years of development in case law and regulation, and the increasing impact of cross-border and transnational sale of goods. The Court of Justice of the European Union handed down major rulings concerning the Product Liability Directive which affect the application of the Directive and national arrangements and Fairgrieve and Goldberg examines this in detail. For any legal practitioner operating in areas which require knowledge of European product liability law, an understanding of the impact of recent developments is essential and this work is an essential resource for practitioners working on product liability, sale of goods, personal injury and negligence. The work provides comprehensive coverage of the law of negligence as it applies to product liability, of the strict liability provisions of the Consumer Protection Act 1987, and of the EU's Product Liability Directive on which the Act is based. Although the majority of cases involve pharmaceuticals and medical devices, in recent English cases the allegedly defective products have been as diverse as a child's buggy, an All Terrain Vehicle, and even a coffee cup. Many cases are brought as group actions, and the book examines the rights of those who are injured by defective products. As well as considering the perspective of the law as it has developed in the UK, this edition contains detailed discussion of case law from other jurisdictions including the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France and Germany. The coverage in the work is complemented by a full analysis of issues which arise in transnational litigation involving problems of jurisdiction and the choice of laws.

Orphan Drugs: The Question of Products Liability

1985 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-513
Author(s):  
Susan F. Scharf
Keyword(s):  
Drug Development ◽  
Orphan Drug ◽  
Rare Diseases ◽  
Tort Law ◽  
Orphan Drugs ◽  
Products Liability ◽  
Liability Law ◽  
Design Defect ◽  
Liability Costs ◽  
Orphan Drug Development

AbstractOrphan drugs, essential for die treatment of persons widi rare diseases, generally are unprofitable for manufacturers to develop and market. While congressional and administrative efforts to promote die development of orphan drugs have met widi modest success, application of products liability doctrine to orphan drug sponsors could subvert those efforts. This Note describes die provisions of die Orphan Drug Act and analyzes products liability law with respect to orphan drug litigation. It argues that die goals of tort law support the imposition of liability for design defect, failure to warn and negligence in testing. Finally, die Note acknowledges diat liability costs create disincentives for orphan drug development and suggests mechanisms for reducing manufacturers’ liability concerns.

Sexuality and the Spatial Dynamics of Capitalism

1992 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 651-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Knopp
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Symbolic Space ◽  
Physical Mobility ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Gender Based

Sexuality, gender, and class (with race, ethnicity, physical mobility, and other social categories related to power) are deeply implicated in the constitution of each other as social relations. Spatial structures and conflicts that are constitutive of class relations are therefore also constitutive of sexuality. An examination of recent developments in feminist, lesbian and gay, and radical social theory, and certain elements of the historical geography of capitalism, reveals specific ways in which this is so. Urban spatial designs in Britain and the USA in the 19th and 20th centuries, for example, implicate hegemonic constructions of sexuality in gender-based and class-based spatial divisions of labor. Similarly, struggles over the social definitions of sexuality have involved individuals and groups recoding spaces that have been devalued by the market in potentially counterhegemonic ways. Thus, struggles over sexuality manifest themselves as struggles over sexual representations of, and sexual symbols in, space as well as over spatial organization. Indeed, these sorts of struggles may actually be more important in the contemporary era than those concerning the spatial organization of sexuality. This is because the sociospatial construction of otherness, which has as much to do with representational and symbolic space as with physical space, has become key to the survival of capitalism.

Autonomous Vehicles, Technological Progress, and the Scope Problem in Products Liability

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-212
Author(s):  
Alexander B. Lemann
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Human Error ◽  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Liability Rule ◽  
Products Liability ◽  
Liability Law ◽  
Relative Safety ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Tort System ◽  
Safety Features

Abstract Autonomous vehicles are widely expected to save tens of thousands of lives each year by making car crashes attributable to human error – currently the overwhelming majority of fatal crashes – a thing of the past. How the legal system should attribute responsibility for the (hopefully few) crashes autonomous vehicles cause is an open and hotly debated question. Most tort scholars approach this question by asking what liability rule is most likely to achieve the desired policy outcome: promoting the adoption of this lifesaving technology without destroying manufacturers’ incentives to optimize it. This approach has led to a wide range of proposals, many of which suggest replacing standard rules of products liability with some new system crafted specifically for autonomous vehicles and creating immunity or absolute liability or something in between. But, I argue, the relative safety of autonomous vehicles should not be relevant in determining whether and in what ways manufacturers are held liable for their crashes. The history of products liability litigation over motor vehicle design shows that the tort system has been hesitant to indulge in such comparisons, as it generally declines both to impose liability on older, more dangerous cars simply because they lack the latest safety features and to grant immunity to newer, safer cars simply because of their superior aggregate performance. These are instances in which products liability law fails to promote efficient outcomes and instead provides redress for those who have been wronged by defective products. Applying these ideas to the four fatalities that have so far been caused by autonomous vehicles suggests that just as conventional vehicles should not be considered defective in relying on a human driver, autonomous vehicles should not be immune when their defects cause injury.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document