Negligent Misstatement, Antifragility, and the State

Richard Mullender

Chapter 10 in A Research Agenda for Contract Law, 2026, pp 221-242 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The law on negligent misstatement, enunciated in Hedley Byrne v Heller, has moral appeal. It secures financial interests and serves the end of personal autonomy. It is thus unsurprising that judges have extended the range of circumstances to which Hedley Byrne applies. The judges who have developed the law in this area have made apparent a commitment to security – a value that has a central place in modern social imaginaries. The elaboration of the law on negligent misstatement has not, however, been an unalloyed good. When we view it from the standpoint of individual responsibility, it is problematic. This chapter uses the idea of antifragility to support this claim. ‘Antifragility’ relates to the cultivation of capacity in individuals as they respond to practical difficulties. This chapter draws the conclusion that, if judges ceased to provide redress for negligent misstatement, this would be of benefit to individuals and the state.

Keywords: Negligent Misstatement; Personal Autonomy; Security; Modern Social Imaginaries; Individual Responsibility; Antifragility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035342570
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035342587.00017 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:23748_10

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().