Tort Law CML 1207A
Tort law is a fascinating collection of legal claims that parties can bring against one another in relation to certain types of harm. One finds tort law at the center of key current issues such as the liability of social hosts for a guest’s drunk driving, the duty of the police to protect women at risk of domestic crops, among many others.
The study of tort law permits us to explore the problematic relationship between law and justice. The violence, the claims of organic farmers to be free of genetic drift from nearby genetically modified pursuit of a claim in tort law is expensive, well beyond the reach of most people. Is there a more efficient way of ensuring compensation of the injured and deterring careless or deliberate injury, while also recognizing the powerful psychological impulses underlying “having one’s day in court?”
The approach of this course is to learn how to reason legally to identify legal claims in a creative manner, while at the same time examining critically the implications of tort law for social policy and justice. In order to do this, we cover the key types of tort claims and defenses, extracting rules of law from reported cases and debating the policy implications of these rules.
Useful Links:
Slides:
Tort Law - Introduction - September 7 2011