The Concept of Baseline Risk in Tort Litigation

Authors

Vern R. Walker, Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Kentucky Law Journal

Publication Date

1992

Abstract

This Article examines what is meant, or should be meant, by "normal risk," and how to determine what the "normal risks" are in a given situation. This Article proposes a new legal concept "baseline risk.'' The objective is to design a concept of baseline risk that should prove useful in tort litigation by clarifying what is meant by "normal risk" and providing a well-defined concept upon which a reevaluation of traditional tort concepts might rest. A more precise notion of "normal risk" may assist in improving the designs of such traditional tort concepts as "unreasonable risk," "abnormally dangerous activity," "product defect," and "causation"-concepts dangerous activity," that are stubbornly vague in increasingly unproductive ways.

Recommended Citation

Vern R. Walker, The Concept of Baseline Risk in Tort Litigation, 80 Ky. L.J. 631 (1992)
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/faculty_scholarship/579