Torts and Innovation

33 Pages Posted: 8 Nov 2007 Last revised: 21 Oct 2015

See all articles by Gideon Parchomovsky

Gideon Parchomovsky

Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Faculty of Law; University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

Alex Stein

Israel Supreme Court

Date Written: 2008

Abstract

This Essay exposes and analyzes a hitherto overlooked cost of the current design of tort law: its adverse effect on innovation. Tort liability for negligence, defective products, and medical malpractice is determined by reference to custom. We demonstrate that courts' reliance on custom and conventional technologies as the benchmark of liability chills innovation and distorts its path. Specifically, the recourse to custom taxes innovators and subsidizes replicators of conventional technologies. We explore the causes and consequences of this phenomenon and propose two possible ways to modify tort law in order to make it more welcoming to innovation.

Keywords: law & technology, science & technology, torts, evidence, innovation, negligence, products liability, medical malpractice, custom

JEL Classification: K13, O31

Suggested Citation

Parchomovsky, Gideon and Stein, Alex, Torts and Innovation (2008). Michigan Law Review, Vol. 107, p. 285, 2008, U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 07-31, Cardozo Legal Studies Research Paper No. 209, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1028346

Gideon Parchomovsky (Contact Author)

Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Faculty of Law ( email )

Mount Scopus
Mount Scopus, IL 91905
Israel

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School ( email )

3501 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States
215-898-1603 (Phone)

Alex Stein

Israel Supreme Court ( email )

Sha'arey Mishpat Street
Jerusalem
Israel

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