Negligence

Posted: 3 Nov 1999

See all articles by Kenneth W. Simons

Kenneth W. Simons

University of California, Irvine School of Law

Abstract

This essay investigates moral and legal responsibility for negligence. Negligence has many meanings; the essay considers the creation of an unjustified and low probability risk of causing harm. The common-sense moral precept that one should not be negligent reflects neither a coldly calculating economic or utilitarian conception, nor an absolutist deontological conception that ignores all costs or disadvantages of taking precautions against risk. Rather, ordinary moral judgments, informed by plausible nonutilitarian and deontological moral principles, can make sense of the duty not to act negligently. And a pluralistic balancing approach can recognize the breadth of values expressed in these judgments and principles. In law, norms of negligence often express private moral norms, but they also have distinctive institutional features. In the realm of Anglo-American tort doctrine, principles of fault, rather than of corrective justice, offer the better interpretation and more convincing deontological justification.

JEL Classification: K13

Suggested Citation

Simons, Kenneth W., Negligence. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=173855

Kenneth W. Simons (Contact Author)

University of California, Irvine School of Law ( email )

401 E. Peltason Dr.
Room 3800H
Irvine, CA 92697-1000
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Abstract Views
1,367
PlumX Metrics