Category Archives: Causation
‘Introduction to Causation With A Human Face’
“How should philosophers (and others) approach the topic of causation and causal reasoning? Causation with a Human Face (CHF) proposes an approach that brings together results from a number of different disciplines, both descriptive (eg, the empirical psychology of causal cognition) and normative (statistics, econometrics, machine learning, philosophy). The guiding idea is that causal reasoning […]
Omer Pelled, ‘All-or-Nothing, or Something – Proportional Liability in Private Law’
ABSTRACT Judges and juries often make factual decisions even if the facts are disputed, and there is no clear-cut evidence available. Despite this common state of uncertainty, verdicts are thought of as having clear winners and losers – either the plaintiff wins and receives a full remedy, or the defendant wins, and the plaintiff gets […]
‘“Negligent” London firm defeats £12m claim for lack of causation’
“Leading London law firm Withers has fought off a £12m claim on the basis of causation after the High Court ruled that it gave negligent advice to a property developer. However, His Honour Judge Pelling QC, sitting as a High Court judge, found that the firm gave negligent advice on a settlement agreement, leading to […]
Edijs Brants, ‘Role of Foreseeability in Imposition of Civil Liability’
ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to offer an insight into the role of foreseeability in imposition of civil liability. The article contains analysis of the principle of foreseeability from various points of view, for example, by analysing it from the perspective of the general (fault-based) model of liability as well of the strict […]
Henry Cooney, ‘Factual Causation in Cases of Market-Based Causation’
ABSTRACT Causation serves as a requirement for the imposition of liability in a multitude of private law contexts. Recently, when dealing with requirements of causation imposed by statutory schemes proscribing misleading or deceptive conduct, Australian courts have considered the possibility of a plaintiff arguing a ‘market-based’ theory of causation. This article aims to explore and […]
Richard Wright, ‘Identifying and Assigning Liability Among Multiple Legally Responsible Causes’
ABSTRACT This paper, forthcoming in the Rechtstheorie journal, discusses the development of the NESS analysis of natural causation in philosophy and law and (relatedly) the failure of the but-for/sine-qua-non test as an exclusive test, responds to criticisms of the NESS analysis, notes general acceptance of the NESS analysis by academics and increasingly by courts made […]
Wojtczak and Ksiezak, ‘Causation in Civil Law and the Problems of Transparency in AI’
ABSTRACT Although a number of European Union legal documents require AI to be transparent, this is frequently not the case. Such opacity can be attributed to a diverse range of causes, ranging from so called ‘black box’ algorithms, trade secrets and patents, to the cognitive barriers of non-professionals. Transparency, in contrast, is, in many cases, […]
D’Andra Millsap Shu, ‘The Coming Causation Revolution in Employment Discrimination Litigation’
ABSTRACT For more than a decade, employment discrimination causation law has been a confusing, often overly restrictive quagmire that has contributed substantially to the paltry success rate of plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases. Most of these cases are dismissed pre-trial, all too often based on a failure of causation. A key reason traces back to […]
Mark Geistfeld, ‘Proximate Cause Untangled’
ABSTRACT The many facets of tort liability are filtered through the requirement of proximate cause, which has made the element confusing and the source of considerable controversy. Is proximate cause properly determined by the directness test or the foreseeability test, each of which has been both widely adopted and roundly criticized? Is there any defensible […]
Michael Duff, ‘What COVID-19 Laid Bare: Adventures in Workers’ Compensation Causation’
ABSTRACT This essay performs a close analysis of workers’ compensation coverage of COVID-19 and arrives at the conclusion that it should not be ‘impossible’ to prove in a legal sense that an employee’s COVID-19 was caused by work. Scientific proof is not the same as legal proof: workers’ compensation law has never required that claims […]