This Article explores how U.S. tort law can respond more effectively to the distinct harms posed by deepfakes, including reputational injury, identity appropriation, and emotional distress. Traditional tort doctrines, such as defamation, the right of publicity, and intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED), remain fragmented and ill-suited to the speed, scale, and anonymity of deepfake dissemination. Using a comparative functionalist approach, the Article analyzes how China and Singapore respond to deepfake harms through structurally divergent but functionally instructive frameworks. China’s model combines codified personality rights with intermediary obligations under a civil law regime, while Singapore adopts a hybrid approach that integrates common law torts with targeted statutory and administrative interventions. Although neither model is directly replicable in the United States, both offer valuable comparative insights to guide the reform of U.S. tort law. The article advances an integrated governance model for U.S. tort law: reconstructing personality-based torts, repositioning tort law through conditional intermediary liability, and clarifying constitutionally grounded limits for speech-based claims. Drawing on Chinese and Singaporean legal approaches, the Article sets out a comparative reform framework that enables U.S. tort law to better address deepfake harms while safeguarding autonomy and dignity in AI-driven digital environments.
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Journal of Tort Law
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Edited by:
Ellen M. Bublick
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Founded by:
Jules Coleman
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Editorial Board:
Mark A Geistfeld
Language:
English
First published:
January 1, 2006
Publication Frequency:
2 issues per year
About this journal
Objective
The Journal of Tort Law aims to be the premier publisher of original articles about tort law. JTL is committed to methodological pluralism. The only peer-reviewed academic journal in the U.S. devoted to tort law, the Journal of Tort Law publishes cutting-edge scholarship in tort theory and jurisprudence from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives: comparative, doctrinal, economic, empirical, historical, philosophical, and policy-oriented. Founded by Jules Coleman (Yale) and some of the world's most prominent tort scholars from the Harvard, Fordham, NYU, Yale, and University of Haifa law faculties, the journal is the premier source for original articles about tort law and jurisprudence.
- Comparative, doctrinal, economic, empirical, historical, philosophical, and policy-oriented analyses of issues in or related to tort law
- European Tort Law
- Comparative Law
- Foreign and International Law
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Scholarly articles, comments and reviews
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- Methodological pluralism
- Interdisciplinary perspectives
- Top international reviewers
- Ahead of print publishing
History
Two issues/year
Content available since 2006 (Volume 1, Issue 1)
ISSN: 1932-9148
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Open AccessReimagining U.S. Tort Law for Deepfake Harms: Comparative Insights from China and SingaporeSeptember 29, 2025
Journal of Tort Law publishes special and thematic issues focussed on important and emerging topics in the field of study. The journal has established a rigorous process to ensure that any special issue manuscripts follow the same high-quality standards and peer review processes as regular manuscripts. For further information on the journal’s peer review policy please see the "Instructions for Authors".
Recent Special Issues
| CiteScore | 1.4 | 2024, Scopus (Elsevier B.V., 2025) |
| SCImago Journal Rank | 0.239 | 2024, SJR (Scimago Lab, 2025; Data Source: Scopus) |
| Source Normalized Impact per Paper | 0.686 | 2024, CWTS Journal Indicators (CWTS B.V., 2025; Data Source: Scopus) |
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We look forward to receiving your manuscript!
Co-Editors
Ellen M. Bublick, Arizona State University
Gregory Keating, University of Southern California (USC) Gould School of Law
Senior Editors
Mark Geistfeld, New York University
John Goldberg, Harvard University
Ronen Perry, Haifa University
Christopher J. Robinette, Southwestern Law School
Catherine Sharkey, New York University
John Witt, Yale University
Benjamin Zipursky, Fordham University
Founding Editor
Jules Coleman
Advisory Board
Kenneth Abraham, University of Virginia
Jennifer Arlen, New York University
Anita Bernstein, Brooklyn Law School
Guido Calabresi, Yale University (Honorary Member)
Izhak Englard, Hebrew University
Richard Epstein, University of Chicago
George Fletcher, Columbia University
James Gordley, University of California, Berkeley
Mark Grady, University of California, Los Angeles
Gregory Keating, University of Southern California
Helmut Koziol, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Saul Levmore, University of Chicago
David G. Owen, University of South Carolina
Stephen R. Perry, University of Pennsylvania
Ariel Porat, University of Tel Aviv
Robert L. Rabin, Stanford University
Arthur Ripstein, University of Toronto
Christopher Schroeder, Duke University
Anthony Sebok, Cardozo Law School
Stephen Shavell, Harvard University
Jane Stapleton, University of Cambridge
Stephen Sugarman, University of California, Berkeley
W. Kip Viscusi, Vanderbilt University
Ernest Weinrib, University of Toronto
Richard W. Wright, Illinois Institute of Technology
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Journal information
Additional information
eISSN:
1932-9148
ISSN:
2194-6515
Language:
English
Publisher:
De Gruyter
Additional information
First published:
January 1, 2006
Publication Frequency:
2 issues per year
eISSN:
1932-9148
ISSN:
2194-6515
Audience(s) for this journal
Researchers and practitioners interested in tort law
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