Category Archives: Causation
David Winterton, ‘Examining Mitigation in the Law of Damages and the Limits of the Compensatory Principle’
ABSTRACT In Causation in the Law, Hart and Honoré famously argued that the attribution of responsibility for outcomes within the law is broadly consistent with the ordinary person’s non-legal judgments about responsibility, whilst simultaneously drawing an important distinction between ‘causal’ and non-causal’ rules of responsibility attribution. In Mitigation in the Law of Damages, Andrew Summers […]
Simon Auerbach, ‘Sir Patrick Elias on Causation’
ABSTRACT This article considers the contribution of Sir Patrick Elias to our understanding of causation in labour law. For these purposes, the concept of causation is considered in its wide sense, embracing issues which arise in claims of both unfair dismissal and discrimination, and at both liability and remedy stages. Sir Patrick’s judicial decisions include […]
Meixian Song, ‘Degrees of causation: revisiting the efficient cause test and the “winner-takes-all” principle in English insurance law’
ABSTRACT The theory of degrees of causation in philosophical accounts assumes that causation comes in degrees. This article examines the conceptual implications of this theory for the apportionment of legal liability, aiming to provide a coherent account of causation-in-fact and causation-in-law, as well as judicial approaches to causation in insurance law and tort law. Drawing […]
Zehra and Wong, ‘A Duty to What? A Closer Account of Rukhadze’
ABSTRACT This case note comments on the recent UKSC case Rukhadze v Recovery Partners GP Ltd, wherein the Appellants sought to challenge the no-profit rule in favour of a but-for test in account of profit claims against fiduciaries. It considers contested aspects of the judgment, including the relevance of but-for causation in fiduciary law, the […]
Luke Meier, ‘Failure-to-Warn Suits Against Pharmaceutical Companies: Physician Testimony, Causation, and Summary Judgment’
ABSTRACT It is hard to win a tort suit against a pharmaceutical company. The theory that a drug or medical device has been incorrectly designed is often foreclosed under existing law. A plaintiff pursuing a tort suit based on a warning theory might have her claim preempted by federal law. Even if a plaintiff can […]
Aryan Mohseni, ‘Fiduciaries, Causation and Accounts of Profits: Rukhadze v Recovery Partners GP Ltd’
ABSTRACT The recent decision of the United Kingdom Supreme Court in Rukhadze v Recovery Partners GP Ltd deals with a wealth of issues in equity. It suffices here to touch on four – the nature of the no-profit duty, whether there is any ‘test’ of causation for an account of profits, remedial constructive trusts, and […]
David Wilde, ‘Causation and the fiduciary “No Profit” rule – Recovery Partners GP Ltd v Rukhadze (Part 1)’
ABSTRACT A critical analysis of what the Supreme Court said about the role of causation in liability to account under the fiduciary ‘no profit’ rule in Recovery Partners GP Ltd v Rukhadze [2025] UKSC 10, [2025] 2 WLR 529. It questions the approach and outcome – at least in part. David Wilde, Causation and the […]
‘Forever Chemicals and Tort Law’ – special number of Journal of European Tort Law
Editorial (Stephanie Nitsch and Barbara C Steininger) Forever Chemicals and Comparative Tort Law: Grounds for Liability (Stephanie Nitsch) Damage Caused by Forever Chemicals – What’s all the PFAS About? (Albert Ruda) Forever Chemicals and Tort Law – Causation (Maria Lee) Forever Chemicals and Tort Law: Limitation (Corinne Widmer Lüchinger) ——–€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€——– Journal of European Tort Law […]
Steel and Geistfeld, ‘Causation and Climate Change in Tort’
ABSTRACT We identify two kinds of causal difficulties that affect liability for climate change in tort. First, the problem of attenuated causation is that no particular emitter’s wrongful emissions may be necessary for a particular harm, and so the law’s standard but-for test of causation is not satisfied, even if the harm would not have […]
Rebecca Vangelos, ‘Chronically Online: Apportioning Liability in Social Media Litigation Based on User Engagement’
ABSTRACT The average American teenager spends nearly five hours on social media every day. This result is by design: social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok deploy persuasive technologies – including infinite scroll, personalized content recommendation feeds, and dark patterns – to capture and retain teen attention. These intentional design features exploit adolescent vulnerabilities […]