Does Risk to Oneself Increase the Care Owed to Others? Law and Economics in Conflict

Robert D. Cooter and Ariel Porat

Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series from Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics

Abstract: As applied by courts, the Hand Rule balances the injurer's burden of precaution and the victims' reduction in risk. In this application, risk to oneself does not increase the duty owed to others. Economists, however, use the Hand Rule to minimize social costs, which requires balancing the burden of precaution against the reduction in risk to everyone. For economists, risk to oneself counts in determining the duty owed to others. In cases where precaution reduces joint risk (risk to oneself and others), the usual legal interpretation underestimates the reduction in risk relative to the economic interpretation, often by 50%. The consequence is a lower standard of legal care than required to minimize social costs. Judges should reconceptualize the Hand Rule so that risk to oneself increases the care owed to others.

Date: 2000-03-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8c41q4fm.pdf;origin=repeccitec (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:cdl:oplwec:qt8c41q4fm

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series from Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Lisa Schiff ().