Punitive Damages Awards: The Courts' Role, and Limitations of Review

Abstract

This article addresses the contentious challenges that have arisen over punitive damages awards. Business interests assert that such awards violate the 14th Amendment due process clause, and even, inventively, the Eighth Amendment's excessive fines clause. While the Supreme Court has displayed an abiding interest in punitive damages, and in particular whether there should be any relation to the size of such awards to the demonstrated harm, the Court has yet to articulate a theorem for evaluating the constitutionality of such awards.