Table of Contents

Guido Calabresi on Torts: Italian Courts and the Cheapest Cost Avoider

Roberto Pardolesi, Libera Università degli Studi Sociali (LUISS) Guido Carli
Bruno Tassone, affiliation not provided to SSRN

Calabresi and Behavioural Tort Law and Economics

Michael G. Faure, University of Maastricht - Faculty of Law, Metro, Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Erasmus School of Law


TORTS & PRODUCTS LIABILITY LAW ABSTRACTS

"Guido Calabresi on Torts: Italian Courts and the Cheapest Cost Avoider" Free Download
Erasmus Law Review, Vol. 1, No. 4, 2008

ROBERTO PARDOLESI, Libera Università degli Studi Sociali (LUISS) Guido Carli
Email:
BRUNO TASSONE, affiliation not provided to SSRN
Email:

Guido Calabresi proposed to replace the dominating paradigm of fault with simpler strict liability rules that put liability on the most appropriate actors (the cheapest cost avoiders). Assuming that the objective function of the tort system is the mimimization of the sum of the injury and injury avoidance costs associated with accidents (primary costs), risk-spreading costs (secondary costs), and administrative costs (tertiary costs), he suggested that the adoption of strict liability, targeted to specified activities, would achieve the goal of cost minimization. The core of an extremely richer message was that the cheapest cost avoider test would abate the administrative costs of courts. Moreover, the manufacturers’ ability to spread the costs of strict liability through the prices charged for their products would effectively insure product users against the risks of injury. This masterpiece of normative analysis has deployed an ever increasing influence on thinking about tort law, not only in the US but also in Europe. This paper aims to trace the impact of Calabresi’s ideas on Italian case-law.

"Calabresi and Behavioural Tort Law and Economics" Free Download
Erasmus Law Review, Vol. 1, No. 4, 2008

MICHAEL G. FAURE, University of Maastricht - Faculty of Law, Metro, Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Erasmus School of Law
Email:

Written in honour of Guido Calabresi, this essay discusses critically several of the basic assumptions of the neo-classic model of tort law: one being that rational individuals will respond to applicable tort rules, striving to maximise their utility and to satisfy their own self-interest. Insights from behavioural law and economics are used to show that decision-making often takes place in a way that is different from that assumed by traditional economic models. The paper discusses the consequences of the behavioural literature for the economic analysis of law. It also demonstrates that Calabresi’s approach to tort law is more differentiated and flexible than some of the more formal models. This approach has the advantage that it allows one to take into account all kinds of cognitive limitations, errors, and information problems, as did Calabresi himself in many of his publications on this issue in the 1960s and 1970s. The paper illustrates how Guido Calabresi was already aware of cognitive limits: for instance, concerning the ability of parties to assess how much they should spend ‘for their own good’. This led him to arrive at balanced conclusions with regard to normative consequences of these limits. Many of the ideas of behavioural law and economics were hence already implicit in Calabresi’s writings.

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Advisory Board

Torts & Products Liability Law

ANITA BERNSTEIN
Anita and Stuart Subotnick Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School

RICHARD A. EPSTEIN
James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago - Law School, Stanford University - Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace

MARK GEISTFELD
Crystal Eastman Professor of Law, New York University - School of Law

MARK F. GRADY
Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles - School of Law

SAUL LEVMORE
William B. Graham Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School

ROBERT L. RABIN
A. Calder Mackay Professor of Law, Stanford Law School

W. KIP VISCUSI
University Distinguished Professor of Law, Economics, and Management, Vanderbilt University - Law School, Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), University Distinguished Professor of Law, Economics, and Management, Vanderbilt University - Department of Economics, University Distinguished Professor of Law, Economics, and Management, Vanderbilt University - Owen Graduate School of Management

RICHARD W. WRIGHT
Professor of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology - Chicago-Kent College of Law