Is Personal Injury Law Personal?
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Zoë Sinel
Abstract
This essay responds to Jeffrey O’Connell’s critique of fault-based tort liability. Behind O’Connell’s argument for no-fault liability lies the notion that “accidents” simply happen and no one is to blame for them. This idea can be seen as a species of philosophical arguments surrounding the perceived unfairness of moral luck. In reply, this essay outlines several responses to moral luck, ultimately siding with a position that accommodates both the apparent randomness of accidents with a coherent justification for personal legal responsibility. The essay’s position, however, assumes an answer to the precise feature of tort law that O’Connell found problematic and unjustified, namely, that this defendant has a particular reason to pay this plaintiff. In response, the essay offers a defense of the personal nature of tort law’s remedial personal obligations.
Acknowledgments
A special thanks to my colleague Craig Brown, a past doctoral student of O’Connell’s, who credits him with changing the course of his academic trajectory from public international law to insurance law.
©2013 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Symposium Issue: “Tort, No-Fault, and Real-World Compensation,” A Volume in Honor of Jeffrey O’Connell
- Articles
- Jeffrey O’Connell and the Compensation Principle in Accident Law: Institutional and Intellectual Perspectives
- Prosser and His Influence
- Exit, Adversarialism, and the Stubborn Persistence of Tort
- Jeffrey O’Connell and the Market in Tort Claims
- Is Personal Injury Law Personal?
- Party Autonomy in Tort Theory and Reform
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Symposium Issue: “Tort, No-Fault, and Real-World Compensation,” A Volume in Honor of Jeffrey O’Connell
- Articles
- Jeffrey O’Connell and the Compensation Principle in Accident Law: Institutional and Intellectual Perspectives
- Prosser and His Influence
- Exit, Adversarialism, and the Stubborn Persistence of Tort
- Jeffrey O’Connell and the Market in Tort Claims
- Is Personal Injury Law Personal?
- Party Autonomy in Tort Theory and Reform
