Category Archives: Causation
Wright and Puppe, ‘Causation: Linguistic, Philosophical, Legal and Economic’
Abstract: Causation plays an essential role in attributions of legal responsibility. However, considerable confusion has been generated in philosophy, law and economics by the use of causal language to refer not merely to causation in its basic (actual/factual/natural) sense, which refers to the operation of the laws of nature, but also to the quite different […]
Wright, G’sell and Ferey, ‘Introduction to Causation, Liability and Apportionment: Comparative Interdisciplinary Perspectives’
Abstract: This Introduction summarizes the discussions of causation, liability and apportionment from philosophical, legal and economic perspectives by leading authors from various common and civil law jurisdictions. The papers, which are being published in English in the Chicago-Kent Law Review and in French by Bruylant, are based on presentations at an international conference in September […]
Puppe and Wright, ‘Causation in the Law: Philosophy, Doctrine and Practice’
Abstract: Causation plays an essential role in attributions of legal responsibility. However, considerable confusion has been generated by the use of causal language to refer not merely to causation in its basic (actual/factual/natural) sense, which refers to the operation of the laws of nature, but also to the quite different normative issue of appropriate legal […]
Ingeborg Puppe, ‘The Concept of Causation in the Law’
Abstract: It is a defense of the so called regularity thesis and the deductive-nomological model of causal explanation as the base of natural causation against objections brought forward recently by advocates of a singularity theory and a counterfactual theory of causation in philosophy and law, most of which are not new. Without regularities, it makes […]
Ernest Weinrib, ‘Causal Uncertainty’
Abstract: This article examines, from the standpoint of corrective justice, three basic situations of causal uncertainty in the law of negligence. In the first situation the uncertainty is about which of the possible defendants wrongfully caused the injury. In the second situation the uncertainty is whether the injury resulted from the innocent or the wrongful […]
Dongen and Verdam, ‘The Development of the Concept of Contributory Negligence in English Common Law’
Abstract: The injured party’s own conduct which has contributed to the damage that he has suffered has been a bar to the recovery of damages for centuries in the common law tradition. This article describes and analyses the historical development, from the early modern period until the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act of 1945, of […]
Shyamkrishna Balganesh, ‘Causing Copyright’
Abstract: Copyright protection attaches to an original work of expression the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible medium. Yet, modern copyright law contains no viable mechanism by which to examine whether someone is causally responsible for the creation and fixation of the work. Whenever the issue of causation arises, copyright law relies […]
Shahar Dillbary, ‘Causation Actually’
Abstract: The article debunks the consensus that in concerted action, concurrent causes and alternative liability situations, the actual causation requirement is missing. While courts and scholars insist that in these cases tort law holds liable parties who clearly did not cause the victim’s harm, this article offers a novel approach. Using a simple model and […]
Review of Sarah Green, Causation in Negligence
“It seems the courts often have a great deal of trouble with the notion of causation. Or, at least, that’s the view one would come to if, ignoring the judicial decisions themselves, one concerned oneself only with academic commentary about many of those decisions. Nor are matters improved when, speaking or writing extra-judicially, judges themselves […]
‘Causation Theory and Tort Law: An Update’
“Causation has generated a great deal of theoretical writing in tort law. The most recent issue of the Journal of Tort Law (volume 7, Issue 1-2, Jan 2014, published online 10/31/2015) includes a three-article mini-symposium on the ‘economics of causation’. The JTL symposium authors are me, Mark Grady, and Richard Wright. The contributions from Grady […]