Category Archives: Causation
Richard Wright, ‘Legal Proof: Warranted Degrees of Belief (Not Statistical/Mathematical Probability)’
ABSTRACT Considerable confusion exists, especially in common law jurisdictions, regarding the required standards of legal proof. In Evidence Matters, Susan Haack, focusing on legal doctrine and practice in the United States, explains that the confusion stems from a misunderstanding of the standards of proof as being based on probability in the sense of statistical frequency […]
‘Covid-19: Causation in the Spotlight’
In the recent Judgment of Edwards and others v 2 Sisters Food Group Limited [2025] EWHC 1312 (KB), Sir Peter Lane considered causation in work-related COVID-19 claims and the courts’ approach to a summary judgment application where further evidence may yet be adduced by the respondent. This Judgment is of significance for anyone dealing with […]
Anthony Sangiuliano, ‘Causation and Exposition’
ABSTRACT Theoretical accounts of legal causation have traditionally emerged from tort or criminal law scholarship, only occasionally surfacing in commentary on constitutional law. Given their potential to migrate across jurisdictions to influence debates globally, the role of causation is apt to become a distinctive field of inquiry in comparative constitutional theory. Yet there have been […]
Joachim Dietrich, ‘Inferring Causation: Risks, “Common Experience” and Social Facts’
ABSTRACT When determining causation in tort law, courts often infer causal links between a defendant’s negligence and a plaintiff’s injury, even where there is only limited evidence. This article considers the principles that govern the process of drawing inferences and their application in Australian law. Causal inferences are triggered by the defendant’s conduct that significantly […]
‘Success Without Victory: Lliuya v RWE Decided’
One of the most striking climate cases has come to a striking end. The Higher Regional Court of Hamm dismissed the lawsuit against RWE on minor factual grounds – yet at the same time confirmed that major emitters can, in principle, be held liable under German private law for climate-related harms. The ruling may ultimately […]
Benjamin Hardman, ‘Torts, Tech, and Third Parties: Applying Causation Principles and Secondary-Liability Safe-Harbor Logic to Fair Use Factor Four’
ABSTRACT This paper offers a wholly novel framework for fair-use market-harm analysis by weaving together three foundational doctrines. It begins with tort-law causation, which ensures that legal responsibility aligns with moral intuition and practical fairness by tracing liability only to those actions that both factually cause harm and foreseeably produce it. Hardman, Benjamin, Torts, Tech, […]
Isaac Lam, ‘Rukhadze and others v Recovery Partners GP Ltd and another [2025] UKSC 10 – account of profits and but-for causation’
ABSTRACT The decision by the Supreme Court in Rukhadze and others v Recovery Partners GP Ltd and another [2025] UKSC 10 confirms that a but-for causation is inapplicable in the context of an account of profits within fiduciary relationships, diverging from its role in equitable compensation as held by the House of Lords in Target […]
Yuval Abrams, ‘Relative Proximity and Proximate Cause’
ABSTRACT The theory and doctrine of proximate cause has been too easily dismissed. Two primary errors underlie this dismissal: a misunderstanding of ‘causal proximity’, and a mistaken inference from the correct observation that effects have multiple causes, to the claim that there is no hierarchy between proximate and more remote causes. This article defends the […]
‘Tort Law and Social Policy’ – special number of DePaul Law Review
Discovery Gamesmanship in Mass Torts (Seth Katsuya Endo) Civil Conspiracy, Negligence, and Recklessness In Claims Against Manufacturers of Dangerous Products (John CP Goldberg and Benjamin C Zipursky) Remedy Becomes Regulation: State Making After the Fact (Samuel Issacharoff and Adam Littlestone-Luria) Farm Until It’s Gone: Industrial Animal Agriculture and the Limits of Law (Douglas A Kysar) […]
Jan-Erik Schirmer, ‘Climate Liability: Causation and Duty Demystified’
ABSTRACT Around the world, plaintiffs exposed to climate harms or hazards are filing tort lawsuits against private corporations. Most legal experts argue that these lawsuits are dead on arrival because tort law is ill-suited to the problems posed by climate change. In this article, I try to prove the opposite. I will illustrate that causation […]