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Definition
The rules of strict liability and negligence are the basic rules that courts apply to affirm tort liability and award damages. Under a rule of strict liability, a person is liable for all the accident losses she causes. Under a rule of negligence, a person is liable for the accident losses she causes only if she was negligent. Being negligent implies that the person took less care than the minimum acceptable level prescribed by the law and/or by the court. To analyze the implications of the two liability rules for economic efficiency, a distinction is made between unilateral accidents, in which only the injurer can affect the probability of accident occurrence and the magnitude of the accident losses, and bilateral accidents, in which both accident parties can affect the probability of accident occurrence and the magnitude of the losses. Law and Economics is concerned with the efficiency of the rules and therefore compares strict...
References
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Further Reading
Arlen JH (1990) Re-examining liability rules when injurers as well as victims suffer losses. Int Rev Law Econ 10(3):233–239
Arlen JH (1992) Liability for physical injury when injurers as well as victims suffer losses. J Law Econ Org 8(2):411–426
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Dari-Mattiacci G, Mangan B (2008) Disappearing defendants versus judgment-proof injurers. Economica 75(300):749–765
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Karapanou, V. (2022). Strict Liability Versus Negligence. In: Marciano, A., Ramello, G.B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_528-2
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Strict Liability Versus Negligence- Published:
- 26 November 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_528-2
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Strict Liability Versus Negligence- Published:
- 01 December 2014
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_528-1