How Tort Law Empowers

University of Toronto Law Journal, Vol. 64:4, (2014 Forthcoming)

King's College London Law School Research Paper No. 2014-7

35 Pages Posted: 6 Jan 2014 Last revised: 15 Apr 2015

See all articles by Ori J. Herstein

Ori J. Herstein

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Law; King's College London - Dickson Poon School of Law

Date Written: January 4, 2014

Abstract

The following realization has begun to dominate contemporary tort theory: in order to understand tort law, theorists must also focus on the legal power that tort law vests in tort victims to pursue a remedy, not only on the implications of holding tortfeasors liable for such a remedy. This insight has lead some of the leading theorists of tort law – often writing under the banner of ‘civil recourse theory’ – to suggest that tort law empowers tort victims to pursue and even to obtain redress from tortfeasors. This view has even been expanded to describe private law in general. Yet, close scrutiny reveals that tort law mostly does not vest in tort victims a legal power over the rights of tortfeasors. The same is most likely true for private law more broadly. For the sake of both descriptive accuracy and of realizing its prescriptive potential, civil recourse theory is best amended to view the legal rights and powers of tort victims, as well as the realities of civil litigation, more soberly, and with more conceptual accuracy. This article endorses and grounds the more modest and I think orthodox view on how tort law and private law more broadly empower victims of civil wrongs.

Suggested Citation

Herstein, Ori J., How Tort Law Empowers (January 4, 2014). University of Toronto Law Journal, Vol. 64:4, (2014 Forthcoming) , King's College London Law School Research Paper No. 2014-7, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2374677 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2374677

Ori J. Herstein (Contact Author)

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Law ( email )

Mt. Scopus
Jerusalem, 91905
Israel

HOME PAGE: http://law.huji.ac.il/eng/segel.asp?staff_id=190&cat=441

King's College London - Dickson Poon School of Law ( email )

Somerset House East Wing
Strand
London, WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/law/people/visiting/oherstein.aspx

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

Paper statistics

Downloads
311
Abstract Views
3,405
Rank
177,109
PlumX Metrics