Tort Liability for Pure Economic Loss: A Perspective from the United States and Some Comparative European Insights
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Catherine M Sharkey
Abstract
This article describes and evaluates from a comparative perspective the approach to tort liability for pure economic loss adopted in the Restatement (Third) Torts: Liability for Economic Harm. The analysis highlights three fundamental issues: whether a claim in tort can arise concurrently with a claim in contract; whether claims for professional negligence merit special treatment and, if so, how; and whether claims relating to negligent misrepresentation should be subject to the same rules as apply to negligence generally. Consideration of how these issues are addressed in English, French, and German law suggests that debates in the United States might usefully be informed by European experience.
Endnote
This article is adapted from the author’s keynote address at the 15th Annual Conference on European Tort Law, delivered at the Austrian Ministry of Justice in Vienna on 31 March 2016. Jack Millman (NYU 2016) provided extraordinary research assistance. I am grateful to participants Jean-Sébastien Borghetti, Martin Hogg, and especially Ken Oliphant for comments on an earlier draft.
© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Tort Liability for Pure Economic Loss: A Perspective from the United States and Some Comparative European Insights
- Rethinking Alcock in the New Media Age
- Legislation
- The New Czech Civil Code and Compensation for Damage: Introductory Remarks
- Compensation for Damage in the New Czech Code: Selected Provisions in Translation
- Case Commentary
- Lifestyle Torts, Market Manipulation and the Tobacco Industry: A Comment on Létourneau v JTI-MacDonald Corp
- Book Reviews
- John Oberdiek (ed), Philosophical Foundations of the Law of Torts (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014) ISBN 978-0198701385. xv + 447 pp. € 79.00 (hardback).
- Octavian Ichim, Just Satisfaction under the European Convention on Human Rights (Cambridge University Press 2015). xxxiv + 376 pp. ISBN 9781316191491 £ 75.00 (hardback).
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Tort Liability for Pure Economic Loss: A Perspective from the United States and Some Comparative European Insights
- Rethinking Alcock in the New Media Age
- Legislation
- The New Czech Civil Code and Compensation for Damage: Introductory Remarks
- Compensation for Damage in the New Czech Code: Selected Provisions in Translation
- Case Commentary
- Lifestyle Torts, Market Manipulation and the Tobacco Industry: A Comment on Létourneau v JTI-MacDonald Corp
- Book Reviews
- John Oberdiek (ed), Philosophical Foundations of the Law of Torts (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014) ISBN 978-0198701385. xv + 447 pp. € 79.00 (hardback).
- Octavian Ichim, Just Satisfaction under the European Convention on Human Rights (Cambridge University Press 2015). xxxiv + 376 pp. ISBN 9781316191491 £ 75.00 (hardback).
