What role does defensive conduct play in a utilitarian theory of tort law? Why are rational (as opposed to instinctive) defensive actions permitted by tort doctrine? To address these questions I will build on the property and liability rules framework. I argue that defensive conduct plays an...

Tort law presents a puzzle from an information cost point of view. Like property, its duties often avail against others generally, but unlike property it is appears not to be standardized and is more subject to judicial innovation. This essay argues that torts, like property, employs modular...

In recent decades, there has been a global upsurge in the number of corporate collapses and litigation claims by third parties, which have partly been explained by the economic recession occurring in the late 1980's. However, auditing professions in both Australia and around the world have...

This chapter discusses the challenges of determining appropriate remedies in cases involving animals with a focus on companion animals. Damages fall into one of two categories: substitutionary relief, which is based on the value of loss of the animal, and specific relief, which “seeks to...

This Chapter studies how tort presumes and implements theories of rights. Although most recent philosophical scholarship on tort has focused on corrective justice, by and large that scholarship takes for granted that tort corrects wrongs to substantive moral rights. The morality that generates...

Stirling v. Miller & Poulgrain [1980] 2 NZLR 402 (SC) involved a firm of solicitors that negligently delayed the conveyancing for a property being transferred into a family trust. As a result, the price paid by the trust was $90,000 was more than it would have been had the conveyancing been...

This article argues that punitive, nominal, contemptuous, vindicatory, and disgorgement damages (commonly referred to as non-compensatory damages) can be collectively analysed as public interest damages because all these awards are justified by violations of public interests in addition to...

Real estate developments are typically conducted through the medium of business entities intended to shield its owners of individual liability. Corporations, limited liability companies and limited partnerships have traditionally been viewed as effective mechanisms to accomplish this outcome....

Courts assessing compensatory damages awards often lack adequate information to determine the value of a victim's loss. A central reason for this problem, which the literature has thus far overlooked, is that courts face a dilemma when applying their standard information-forcing tool to the...