Abstract:
In this paper, I consider how tort law and criminal law – conceived as interlocking and overlapping systems for protecting and upholding the legal rights people have against other people – should operate in a society where there are not enough public funds available to run those systems properly or, in the case of tort law, assist people to take advantage of those systems. I discuss how we should identify what kinds of legal wrongs, or violations of people’s legal rights, most need to be addressed by a legal system operating in financially straitened circumstances and how those wrongs might be most effectively be addressed in such circumstances. I also advance some arguments for thinking that we will be shortly living in a society where nowhere near enough money will be available to properly fund our justice system, and that we must start thinking now about the issues raised in this paper.
McBride, Nicholas, Tort Law and Criminal Law in an Age of Austerity (May 1, 2014). Matthew Dyson (ed), Unravelling Tort and Crime (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
First posted 2015-02-18 07:22:40
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