scholarly journals A Primer on the LAW in the United States: Part III Scope of Liability in Product Liability Cases

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jr. Richard J. Hunter ◽  
Henry J. Amoroso ◽  
John H. Shannon

In Part III of our study, the authors describe the types of transactions that are most common in products liability cases and also delineate the parties to the transaction.  This article concludes by discussing some “special topics” in modern product liability law: enterprise liability, alternative liability, and market share liability.  The article relies on references to the Uniform Commercial Code, the Restatement of the Law of Torts, and cites the major common law cases that have impacted on these important issues. Key Words:  Products Liability; Bailments; Franchising; Used Goods; Enterprise Liability; Market Share; Alternative Liability

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Jr Richard J. Hunter ◽  
Henry J. Amoroso ◽  
John H. Shannon

 Abstract In Part II, the authors build on Part I of this study and here focus on the theories implicit in a product liability claim: negligence, fraud and misrepresentation, and warranty—with a focus on their inherent weaknesses—leading to the creation of the now preferred theory of strict liability in tort.  The context of Part II is on the common cases that provided the theoretical basis for the underlying theories, as well as to the development of strict liability. Key words: Theories of liability, negligence, warranty, fraud, strict liability


2019 ◽  
pp. 173-212
Author(s):  
Lawrence M. Friedman

This chapter discusses the law on marriage and divorce, family property, adoption, poor laws and social welfare, and slavery and African Americans in the United States. In the colonial period, the United States had no courts to handle matters of marriage and divorce. Marriage was a contract—an agreement between a man and a woman. Under the rules of the common law, the country belonged to the whites; and more specifically, it belonged to white men. Women had civil rights but no political rights. There were no formal provisions for adoption. A Massachusetts law, passed in 1851, was one of the earliest, and most significant, general adoption law. The so-called poor laws were the basic welfare laws.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Jr. Richard J. Hunter ◽  
Henry J. Amoroso ◽  
John H. Shannon

This article provides an overview or primer on the law of products liability in the United States for use in the managerial decision-making process.  It focuses on the development of case law under the common law in determining a product defect, types of defects, theories of recovery, and the move to the adoption of the theory of strict liability in products cases.  The article is written within the context of the Restatement of the Law of Torts.  The article provides useful information to the product manager who is responsible for production decisions in a business organization. Key words: Products Liability, Product Defects, Strict Liability in Tort


1977 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry J. Bourguignon

In an article published in this Journal in 1932, Professor Edwin Dickinson pointed out that the Supreme Court, in the first thirty years of its existence, dealt with 82 cases which raised questions of international law. The Court and counsel before it repeatedly cited the familiar writers on the law of nations: Grotius, Pufendorf, Bynkershoek, Burlamaqui, Rutherforth, and Vattel. As Dickinson pointed out, “It is an ancient doctrine of the Anglo-American common law that the law of nations is incorporated in and in some sense forms part of the national law.” Largely through decisions based on the principles expressed by the classical writers, the law of nations was early incorporated as part of the law of the United States.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Thi Que Anh ◽  
Bich Thao Nguyen

Product liability law plays an important role in protecting consumers in the modern society. This article analyzes the development of product liability law in the world, presents the concept and characteristics of product liability, examines product liability law in the United States and European Union, and compares with Vietnamese law on protection of consumer rights. The article also surveys some cases decided by Vietnamese courts in which consumers claimed damages for companies’ infringement on their rights, and points out the loopholes and shortcomings of the law and of the courts’ application of law. The authors then argue that these shortcomings result from the lack of an independent body of product liability law which is based on sound theoretical foundation, and proposes directions to address this problem.


Author(s):  
Trevor C Hartley

Abstract This article consists of a comparative study of the basic principles underlying the rules of jurisdiction in private international law in commercial cases in the law of the European Union, the United States and England. It considers the objectives which these rules seek to achieve (protection of the rights of the parties and respect for the interests of foreign States) and the extent to which these objectives are attained. It takes tort claims, especially in the field of products-liability, as an example and considers which system has the most exorbitant rules. It suggests explanations for the differences found.


Author(s):  
Joost Blom

This article examines the choice of law methods developed in four legal systems for problems relating to the substantial or essential validity of contracts. The complicated questions of formation and capacity have had to be left aside. The first two parts of this article discussed the choice of law methods used by courts in France, Germany, and the United States. This concluding part deals with the law in England and the common law jurisdictions in Canada, and also, by way of epilogue, with the recently completed European Communities Convention on the law applicable to contractual obligations. Finally, some general conclusions will be offered about the patterns of law that have emerged in the course of this survey.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 346-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bravo-Hurtado Pablo ◽  
Álvaro Bustos

Abstract While civil law courts of last resort—e.g., cassation courts in France, Italy, and Chile—review up to 90% of appealed cases, common law courts of last resort—e.g., supreme courts of the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada—hear as few as 1% of the same petitions. In this study, we postulate that these different policies can be explained by a comparatively larger commitment from common law courts of last resort to judicial law-making rather than judicial uniformity. While courts require few hearings to update the law (in theory one decision is sufficient), they need a large number of hearings to maximize consistency in the lower courts’ interpretation of the law. We show that the optimal number of hearings increases with an increment in the courts’ concern for uniformity. We also show that if hearing costs are linear then the hearing policies of all courts can be classified in only two types. In addition, we predict important changes in hearing policies when the number of petitions increases. Finally, we find that hearing rates and reversal disutility operate as two ways in which a legal system can achieve a given level of judicial uniformity.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
John Gardner

This chapter focuses on the law of torts, not in the United States, but in other major common law jurisdictions (England and Wales, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) in which tort cases are normally adjudicated by judges sitting without juries. It considers the so-called classical interpretation of the common law of torts by John Goldberg and Ben Zipursky, and how they tend to equivocate on an important point of law in a way that puts them at odds with some writers with whom they would do better to make common cause. It suggests that this equivocation is where the law of the United States parts company with the law in the rest of the common law world. The problem, an English lawyer might then teasingly say, is with American tort law rather than with the Goldberg and Zipursky rendition of it.


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