Chapter Eight - Technology and the Law: The Automobile (By James Willard Hurst, Edited by BJ Ard & William J. Novak)

69 Pages Posted: 6 Oct 2022 Last revised: 29 Nov 2022

See all articles by James Willard Hurst

James Willard Hurst

University of Wisconsin Law School (deceased)

BJ Ard

University of Wisconsin Law School

William J Novak

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - University of Michigan Law School

Date Written: 1949

Abstract

In this chapter we are going to talk about some of the effects that the automobile has had upon the law and some of the effects that the law had upon the automobile. We could undoubtedly open up some worthwhile lines of thought if we talked about the automobile in relation to certain broader problems of which it is a part: for example, the effects of the internal combustion engine or the growth of all types of communication. But we shall have enough on our hands if we stick to the automobile, and even so in the limits of this chapter we can discuss at any length only the relation of the law and the passenger car. This is not merely an arbitrary limitation, however. Of the 32 million registered motor vehicles in the United States in 1940, substantially over 27 million were passenger cars, and a little under four and one-half million were motor trucks. Until the middle 1920s the proportion of trucks to passenger cars was much lower than this. Not only was the passenger car the center of the auto problem as a matter of gross figures; it was likewise the main aspect of the problem that men saw and reacted to. We may properly focus on it when we try to retrace the unplanned paths of the law’s responses to the motor vehicle.

Keywords: James Willard Hurst, J. Willard Hurst, Willard Hurst, technology and law, technology law, automobile, automobile law, automobile regulation

JEL Classification: K40

Suggested Citation

Hurst, James Willard and Ard, BJ and Novak, William J, Chapter Eight - Technology and the Law: The Automobile (By James Willard Hurst, Edited by BJ Ard & William J. Novak) ( 1949). 2022 Wisconsin Law Review 463 (2022), Univ. of Wisconsin Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1759, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4235728

James Willard Hurst

University of Wisconsin Law School (deceased)

BJ Ard (Contact Author)

University of Wisconsin Law School ( email )

975 Bascom Mall
Madison, WI 53706
United States

William J Novak

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - University of Michigan Law School ( email )

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