Dear Eugene

Perhaps this is of only tendential relevance, but there is the US products liability case of Shackil v Lederle Laboratories, 561 A 2d 511, 528-529 (NJ 1989), where the majority refused to extend market share liability to vaccines, and observed that potential compensatory relief was provided under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.


Best

Richard

Dr Richard Goldberg
Reader in Law
School of Law
Taylor Building
King's College
University of Aberdeen
Old Aberdeen
AB24 3UB
Tel: 012224 272745
________________________________________
From: craig rotherham [craigrotherham@googlemail.com]
Sent: 18 May 2011 18:15
To: Volokh, Eugene
Cc: obligations@uwo.ca
Subject: Re: Judges in tort cases saying that a proposed extension of tort liability should be left to the legislature

Dear Eugene,

Apologies if someone else has suggested it and I have overlooked it, but I would recommend George C. Christie, “The Uneasy Place of Principle in Tort Law” in David G. Owen (ed), Philosophical Foundations of Tort Law (OUP, 1996). It is a little dated now but has a good discussion of the judiciary’s notions about the limitations of their powers to have regard to arguments of policy in developing the law.

Best wishes,
Craig

On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 7:41 PM, Volokh, Eugene <VOLOKH@law.ucla.edu<mailto:VOLOKH@law.ucla.edu>> wrote:
Dear colleagues: Judges in tort cases sometimes reject a proposed extension of tort liability on the grounds that it should be left to the legislature (and not just in cases where there’s already a statute foreclosing such liability, which can indeed only be modified by the legislature). The judges obviously recognize that they have the power to create new tort law rules, and that most tort law rules were indeed created by judges; but in some situations, they conclude that they shouldn’t make certain decisions, and that it is only the legislature that should be able to make them. Are there any good articles that discuss this as a general matter, both descriptively and normatively? Many thanks,

Eugene Volokh
UCLA School of Law



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