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Torts and InnovationGideon ParchomovskyUniversity of Pennsylvania Law School; Bar Ilan University - Faculty of Law Alex SteinYeshiva University - Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law 2008 Michigan Law Review, Vol. 107, p. 285, 2008 U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 07-31 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.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 33 Keywords: law & technology, science & technology, torts, evidence, innovation, negligence, products liability, medical malpractice, custom JEL Classification: K13, O31 Accepted Paper SeriesDate posted: November 8, 2007 ; Last revised: July 30, 2009Suggested Citation |
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