by Peter W. Huber
In just one generation, the law of accidents- who's responsible, who pays and for what- has been transformed beyond recognition. Where once the costs of most accidents were allocated by advance agreement between the buyer and seller of a car, a vaccine, an appliance, or a medical procedure, today, these settlements are made mostly in court by judges and juries after the event, no matter what the prior contract.
Here, a leading liability expert argues eloquently that the result has been disastrous. He shows how safety, which the new tort law was designed to enhance, has suffered as it has become increasingly dangerous, from a legal perspective, to market a new drug, practice gynecology, or operate an ambulance service or town dump. Insurance coverage has either declined or disappeared in some areas or become prohibitively expensive. Worst of all, the new tort law, while broadening the right to sue, has undercut the right of free choice by individuals and governments. Huber calls for a return to contract law and concludes his masterful book by showing how we can reconcile the generous impulses of an affluent society with the time-tested legal instruments of cooperation, contract, and consent outside of the courts.
Peter W. Huber holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from MIT (where he has taught) and a law degree from Harvard. A former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, he has published widely in both scholarly journals and popular magazines. He is a Senior Fellow of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and serves as Of Counsel to the Washington, D.C. law firm of Kellogg, Huber, Hansen & Todd.
"Peter Huber's book is brilliant, provocative, original, and iconoclastic. It should be read by everyone interested in (or appalled by) our legal system." -- Paul M. Bator, John P. Wilson Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School, and Former Deputy Solicitor General of the United States
"Peter Huber shows how the world's greatest economy is increasingly becoming mired in a judicial system that is injurious to all. If the U.S. is to maintain its competitive position in a changing world, the message of this book must be heeded." -- Walter B. Wriston, former Chairman of Citicorp
"The ever-spreading crisis of liability and legal overreach is the cancer of capitalism. This book offers some much-needed insight and hope for a cure." -- George Gilder, author of Wealth and Poverty"Huber's lively and clear attack on the modern tort system should demystify a controversy that has been kept for too long in the exclusive province of the lawyers and judges, who run and profit from the system." -- Richard Epstein, James Parker Hall Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
"Peter Huber has written a wise and witty book about one of our nation's pivotal problems -- the mangled method we lawyers have devised to pay (largely ourselves and other "camp followers") when people get hurt. He offers some promising solutions." -- Jeffrey O'Connell, John Allan Love Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
"This book shows with extraordinary clarity and power how our lives are different because of the expansion of liability." -- George Priest, John M. Olin Professor of Law and Economics and Director of the Program in Civil Liability, Yale Law School