The Westray Mine Disaster and its Aftermath: The Politics of Causation

Canadian Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 91-123, 1995

33 Pages Posted: 21 Jul 2011 Last revised: 23 Jul 2011

See all articles by Eric Tucker

Eric Tucker

York University - Osgoode Hall Law School; Cleveland State University, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law

Date Written: 1995

Abstract

Causation analysis is densely political in at least three ways. First, because causation is crucial to our system of attributing moral, legal, and political responsibility, causation arguments are advanced for purely instrumental purposes. They do political work. Second, because any particular occurrence is the outcome of an almost infinite number of antecedent events, “but for” causation analysis produces trivial results. A judgment about causal significance is required and will depend, in part, on the goals of the analysis. The choice of goals is political, but unstated goals and hidden assumptions often exclude consideration of some possible causes as significant. Theses politics of causation need to be made explicit. Third, the institutional setting in which official determinations of causation are made influence the outcome. Hence, it is necessary to explore these as well. Each of these three dimensions of the politics of causation is explored through an analysis of the 1992 Westray Mine disaster which killed 29 miners in Nova Scotia, and the official responses to it. It is argued that if the goal is to protect workers and nothing else, the political-economic context that promotes the creation of hazardous conditions must be considered a significant cause of harmful occurrences. It is unlikely; however that any of the official responses to the disaster will take this approach.

JEL Classification: K13, K31

Suggested Citation

Tucker, Eric, The Westray Mine Disaster and its Aftermath: The Politics of Causation (1995). Canadian Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 91-123, 1995 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1889341

Eric Tucker (Contact Author)

York University - Osgoode Hall Law School ( email )

4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
Canada

HOME PAGE: http://https://works.bepress.com/ericm_tucker/

Cleveland State University, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law ( email )

2121 Euclid Avenue, LB 138
Cleveland, OH 44115-2214
United States

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