Tort Liability and Unawareness

Chakravarty, Surajeet; Kelsey, David; Teitelbaum, Joshua C.

Abstract

We explore the implications of unawareness for tort law. We study cases where injurers and victims initially are unaware that some acts can yield harmful consequences, or that some acts or harmful consequences are even possible, but later become aware. We model unawareness by Reverse Bayesianism. We compare the two basic liability rules of Anglo‐American tort law, negligence and strict liability, and argue that negligence has an important advantage over strict liability in a world with unawareness—negligence, through the stipulation of due care standards, spreads awareness about the updated probability of harm.

Citation

Chakravarty, S., Kelsey, D., & Teitelbaum, J. C. (in press). Tort Liability and Unawareness. International Economic Review, https://doi.org/10.1111/iere.12706

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 20, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Apr 4, 2024
• Deposit Date: Mar 5, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2026
• Journal: International Economic Review
• Print ISSN: 0020-6598
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-2354
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/iere.12706
• Keywords: Tort law; negligence; strict liability; unawareness; Reverse Bayesianism
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/32167899
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/iere.12706
• Additional Information: Received: 2022-07-25; Published: 2024-04-04