Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #800562 in Books
• Published on: 1990-07-17
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

About the Author
Peter W. Huber, an M.I.T.-trained engineer and a Harvard law graduate, has also taught at M.I.T. and formerly clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. A Manhattan Institute Fellow, he lives in Washington, D.C.

Customer Reviews

Must-read book
This book should be mandatory in tort law classes and for legislators. Even if one doesn't agree with the arguments and points made, one cannot discuss tort law intelligently without being able to address Huber's critique.

The Tort Cop and Corporations
There are many problems with Huber's book - most stemming from his confusion between capitalism and corporatism. The ever-increasing effectiveness of libability and the "tort cop" in holding anti-capitalist corporations accountable for their actions is a problem for corporatism, which is a good thing for capitalism and society. The "tort cop" effectively polices shoddy actors in the market and even puts them out of business when they are repeatedly negligent in hurting others.

Yet stories abound in the corporatist press such as a lady getting a million dollars because a fast food employee spilled coffee on her lap at the drive-thru window. These "stories" are presented by the media as ludicrous and a symptom of a legal system out of control and in need of reform. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Juries of individuals like you and I sat and listened to the evidence of both sides. They heard the corporations trying to excuse what they really did when they injured the other party. After deliberating, they found the corporation guilty who, in turn, sent out a misleading press release that was later printed by the media that the corporation owner also owned. This type of disinformation directed against our nation's effective tort system is mirrored in this book by Huber.

First Huber wants us to believe that we're all a bunch of idiots, especially when we sit on juries and try to decide a case brought by an injured party against the perpetrator. Huber maintains that we have unjustly given away billions of dollars in bizarre settlements; not that corporations have done billions of dollars of damage to individuals.

Huber says that this "began and ended with a wholesale repudiation of the law of contract". I would say that it began and has not ended with the State's creation of an artificial person in law - the corporation. Huber then surveys some history of contract law and examines some legal cases. He then makes the case for moving away from the role of tort as cop in law and allowing instead for consent, that way corporations cannot be held responsible for their actions and those with shoddy products and business practices can stay in business.

In short, more Orwellian double-speak to falsely alarm capitalists to run to the rescue of anti-capitalist corporations who, like their parent The State, seldom can do anything right.

Among Best Anywhere On The Subject
Huber appears to be an attorney by education, if not in practice. He has researched the subject well, and has a dry wit in his comparisons that enliven the reading if the reader has any intellectual inclination. The book does not require heavy concentration but is not for a relaxing fireside session. Covering mainly recent decades where liberal legalists Huber terms "The Founders" significantly altered the face of American law in the area of liability, you will understand why he uses the term "revolution" when you finish this book. The anecdotes and historical cases are fascinating. This is absolutely de rigeur reading for anyone expecting or claiming expertise on the subject of liability on the American legal scene.