Bussani and Sebok's Comparative Tort Law: Global Perspectives, now in its second edition, offers readers a detailed introduction to tort law concepts from across the world. This volume contains twenty-four essays, including the introduction, on a range of theories and jurisprudence, spanning many nations and legal systems. The book's first chapters are broad, but the topics become increasingly narrower through later chapters. It begins with an explanation of general tort models, or relationships between tort practice and other legal fields, such as insurance law and criminal law, and eventually progresses into chapters focusing on national tort systems in jurisdictions ranging from China to Brazil. The editors adeptly explain this book's purpose in the introduction as, “a framework for reflection and analysis about the current state of tort law and its recent developments in what has been conventionally called ‘Western’ and ‘non-Western’ tort systems.”
The volume's first section, organized under the heading “The Overall Settings,” includes seven chapters on an assortment of tort concepts. This section begins with a chapter evaluating tort law's role in managing social conflicts within a culture or jurisdiction. Chapter three discusses tort law and conflict of law principles, comparing how choice-of-law jurisprudence has evolved in the United States and other nations over the past several decades. The following chapter reviews tort compensation schemes in the context of international human rights law.
The discussion then shifts to an analysis of interactions between tort law and criminal law, with descriptions of how these legal systems intersect across various jurisdictions. Chapter six analyzes law and economics principles across different liability rules (no liability, strict liability, and negligence), with a helpful diagram or taxonomy of how these rules interrelate with theories of secondary liability, including contributory negligence and comparative non-negligence. This section concludes with chapters on tort law and insurance and alternative compensation schemes. The latter chapter discusses regimes that have been created, often by legislatures, to compensate injured persons for losses without regard to fault or liability, such as work-related injuries.
Part two, “General Issues,” covers common tort law concepts, with the chapters largely organized by legal duty/liability, causation, and damages. This section begins with a chapter on the history of torts in common and civil law systems, focusing on their philosophical underpinnings and evolution. Chapter ten discusses negligence and strict liability, and the contexts in which these standards may typically apply across jurisdictions. The next chapter offers an overview of professional liability, and a discussion of how tort and contract principles may overlap in certain situations. A chapter on product liability provides readers with an introduction to the concept of product liability as a field of comparative study.
After analyzing concepts of liability, the discussion shifts to causation. Chapter sixteen outlines causation theories and rules in Western legal systems, their creators, and their associated burdens of proof, among other points. The final chapters in part two discuss damages. In a chapter on pure economic loss, the author discusses circumstances where these damages are typically seen, approaches to handling these losses in Western nations, and past and future developments on this topic. The next chapter covers non-economic injuries, primarily evaluating and comparing approaches to recovery for pain and suffering and similar damages that are not easily quantifiable. This section concludes with a chapter discussing the potential benefits of using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to better understand awards for non-economic damages.
The book's final part is titled “Beyond the Looking Glass.” This section includes eight chapters, each summarizing key tort law concepts and practices across jurisdictions; the nations and regions included in this section are Russia, Japan, China, India, Brazil, sub-Saharan Africa, Islamic legal systems, and Latin America. The chapters in this section, as well as throughout the book, vary in terms of writing style, with some written in an approachable manner and others using a fair amount of legal jargon. The chapter on Chinese law is especially timely, as it includes an overview of the updated Chinese Civil Code; this Code was published in 2020 and had not been revised significantly since 1948. Researchers may find the information in these chapters illuminating, as the jurisprudence in these legal systems are not typically covered in a comparative tort context.
This book will be a useful primer for a variety of readers, including practitioners who are looking for an introduction to comparative tort law and researchers who are interested in thinking about tort law's philosophical and global concepts. The chapters are organized in a thoughtful manner that follows how tort concepts are typically organized, from broader to narrower topics, and from liability to causation and damages. As this book is in its second edition, it is important to note that the updates from the first edition are well-timed. Overall, many readers could benefit from consulting this book as an introductory text, or having it on-hand as a ready reference guide on comparative tort law concepts.
The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of the Law Library of Congress or the Library of Congress.
