Tort Liability and Unawareness

Surajeet Chakravarty, David Kelsey and Joshua Teitelbaum
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Surajeet Chakravarty: Department of Economics, University of Exeter

No 1801, Discussion Papers from University of Exeter, Department of Economics

Abstract: Unawareness is a form of bounded rationality where a person fails to conceive all feasible acts or consequences or to perceive as feasible all conceivable act-consequence links. We study the implications of unawareness for tort law, where relevant examples include the discovery of a new product or technology (new act), of a new disease or injury (new consequence), or that a product can cause an injury (new link). We argue that negligence has an important advantage over strict liability in a world with unawareness–negligence, through the stipulation of due care standards, spreads awareness about the updated probability of harm.

Keywords: negligence; strict liability; tort law; unawareness. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 K13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-mic
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:exe:wpaper:1801

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