LAW 785: Products Liability Short Course
No part of modern tort law is more important and more contentious than that which pertains to personal injuries caused by defective consumer products. This short course will review the development and the current operation of products liability law, highlighting its distinctive procedural, substantive, and remedial aspects. Some or all of the following topics will be addressed: (1) the ‘strictness’ of strict products liability; (2) differences among manufacturing defect, design defect, and failure-to-warn claims; (3) the justification, if any, for treating product-related accidents differently from other kinds of accidents; (4) the concepts of “enterprise liability” and “market share liability;” (5) special problems posed by the availability of punitive damages in product liability litigation; and (6) the degree to which modern regulatory laws preempt or ought to preempt tort law that stands to impose liability for defective products. [1]
