Cases and Materials on Torts

Aspen Casebook Series

by Richard A. Epstein, Catherine M. Sharkey

This highly successful casebook integrates modern scholarship and historical background to provide students with a thorough understanding of tort law. Written by leading scholar Richard Epstein, Cases and Materials on Torts takes an explicitly economics-based point of view and examines the processes of legal methods and reasoning, and the impact of legal rules on social institutions.

The Tenth Edition welcomes new co-author Catherine Sharkey , an expert on punitive damages and federal preemption of state tort law. Hypothetical problems have been added to assist students in their understanding of core issues. New developments, such as privacy and defamation in the Internet Age, and the relevance of race and gender in calculating damages, are given thorough coverage.

Hallmark features:

Written by a leading scholar in the field,

Economics-based point of view makes a good foil for counterpoint and fuels class discussion.

Traditional approach integrates cases with modern scholarship on moral theory, law and economics, and salient policy questions.

Begins with Intentional Torts and other physical and mental harms, and progresses logically through to nonphysical interests.

Thoughtful presentation examines the processes of legal method, legal reasoning, and the impact of legal rules on social institutions.

Exposes students to different intellectual approaches that have been employed to interpret tort law over the years.

Historical background provides contextual framework of tort law and its development up to the present.

Thoroughly updated, the revised Tenth Edition includes:

New co-author, Catherine Sharkey, an expert on punitive damages and federal preemption of state tort law.

Empirical approach to many issues harmonizes the topics with cutting edge scholarship.

Hypothetical problems, inspired by the facts of actual cases, to help students develop a deeper understanding of the core issues.

New issues are explored, such as privacy and defamation in the age of the Internet, and the relevance of race and gender to damages calculations.

Genres: Law, Nonfiction, Legal

1472 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Richard A. Epstein is the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Law and Senior Lecturer at The University of Chicago Law School.

Epstein started his legal career at the University of Southern California, where he taught from 1968 to 1972. He served as Interim Dean from February to June, 2001.

He received an LLD, hc, from the University of Ghent, 2003. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985 and a Senior Fellow of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago Medical School, also since 1983. He served as editor of the Journal of Legal Studies from 1981 to 1991, and of the Journal of Law and Economics from 1991 to 2001.

His books include The Case Against the Employee Free Choice Act (Hoover 2009); Supreme Neglect Antitrust Decrees in Theory and Practice: Why Less Is More (AEI 2007); Overdose: How Excessive Government Regulation Stifles Pharmaceutical Innovation (Yale University Press 2006); How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution (Cato 2006). Cases and Materials on Torts (Aspen Law & Business; 8th ed. 2004); Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Case for Classical Liberalism (University of Chicago 2003): Cases and Materials on Torts (Aspen Law & Business; 7th ed. 2000); Torts (Aspen Law & Business 1999); Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty with the Common Good (Perseus Books 1998): Mortal Peril: Our Inalienable Rights to Health Care (Addison-Wesley 1997); Simple Rules for a Complex World (Harvard 1995); Bargaining with the State (Princeton, 1993); Forbidden Grounds: The Case against Employment Discrimination Laws (Harvard 1992); Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain (Harvard 1985); and Modern Products Liability Law (Greenwood Press 1980). He has written numerous articles on a wide range of legal and interdisciplinary subjects.

He has taught courses in civil procedure, communications, constitutional law, contracts, corporations, criminal law, health law and policy, legal history, labor law, property, real estate development and finance, jurisprudence, labor law; land use planning, patents, individual, estate and corporate taxation, Roman Law; torts, and workers' compensation.

Reviews

[Joel Myers]

Poured one out for my boy learned hand

[Youlia]

the most enjoyable of my case books tbh

[David Goad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Holy moly, the notes after the cases were organized weirdly! It all felt more dense than it had to be...

[W · Rating 2 out of 5]

"This is the key: You must break up the 30-year life expectancy into finite detailed periods of time. You must take these small periods of time, seconds and minutes, and determine in dollars and cents what each period is worth. . . . You must start at the beginning and show that pain is a continuous thing, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, year after year for thirty years. You must interpret one second, one minute, one hour, one year of pain and suffering into dollars and cents and then multiply to your absolute figure to show how you have achieved your result . . . "

Basically, while reading this book: "pain is a continuous thing, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour." My god, this book is terribly organized. Many fun/interesting cases, but, the structure makes it unnecessarily difficult to get to the doctrinal point.

[Michael Nichols]

Technically only read half of it. But 500 pages of dense tort law oughta qualify as reading 5 books, if you ask me.

[Sarah Bittner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really did not enjoy her

[Elan Levine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note to self I can’t fly while driving even if I think I’m Batman

[Clé]

tbh wouldn’t read again

[Toe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Richard Epstein is a brilliant legal scholar, and I agree with many of his points of view (expanded use of strict liability, his focus on economic efficiency in legal decisions, etc.). However, his casebook was just awful. It was a long, disjointed look at an already scattered topic. Epstein did a horrible job of condensing and organizing the material. There were literally hundreds of mini-cases listed in the notes section followed with unanswered questions or topics to ponder. There was no overall tying of themes or explicit referencing to general themes. It was merely a compilation of cases, which I could have produced.

Additionally, Epstein at least once seemed to intentionally make the subject matter more confusing than it needed to be. For example, in the introduction to proximate cause, he chose Ryan v. New York Central R.R. as the lead case. There, the defendant was not held liable for negligently maintaining his railroad when the plaintiff's house burned down. The court reasoned that the damage must stop somewhere or civilization could not function under the threat of such massive liability. The problem is that this decision is not the current law! In fact, this case is known because so many other cases said it was decided incorrectly.

To my mind, explaining legal rules in a given subject could be very easy, and the organization of the casebook very straightforward. Start with a case highlighting the most current and widely adopted rule on a particular issue. If there are multiple, competing rulings, include a case for each with perhaps a few explanatory sentences in between. If there is a major exception, include a case on that too. Then, in the notes, you can provide the history or other details deemed relevant. Here, Epstein doesn't do that. He head fakes us with what is widely considered an incorrectly ruled case. What is the point of that when someone is trying to learn new information?

Reading some of Epstein's articles and watching him lecture on youtube gave me high hopes for this man's book. It was an utter disappointment.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

honestly, i kind like the way epstein sets up this book. generous coverage of the historical foundations of tort law, which you can dive into or skip as needed, and lots of notes on the important cases. probably best to pair this with something to counterbalance epstein's rather unique viewpoint, but his editors have worked his text into a fairly comprehensive introduction as it is.

[Amelia]

What I learned from this book is that I could read faster than I ever had before, I also learned that railroads, automobiles, dogs, horses, fires, and flaming squibs are exceedingly dangerous and cause a lot of lawsuits. Especially watch out for railroads!

[Jace · Rating 1 out of 5]

This casebook was awful. It doesn't help that my professor was an incredibly poor instructor. You can lecture about the Law and Economics movement until the cows come home, but it doesn't mean squat if you never talk about Torts in the first place.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learn about Torts! Amaze your friends!

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked torts, but this book was not the best. Lots of annoying little note cases, poor organization, and Esptein's law-and-economics bias shines through a little too clearly.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're thinking about a spring gun, I would recommend against going through with that project.

[casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

DONE. thank you epstein, for making torts enjoyable. lies, all lies.

[Purple Wimple]

my torts casebook; there's a lot of history in tort law, which is what makes it interesting to me.

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my Torts textbook and so far it has been decent to learn from, a little dry, but has good notes sections.

[Alison]

Law school keeps me from pleasure reading...

[Jeff Brenner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little dry, but informative.