Torts Policy

• Semester: Fall 2025
• Course ID: 396W
• Credit Hours: 3
• Unique: 30904

Description

Tort law, like most law, is constantly evolving in response to changing circumstances and shifting social values and convictions. Often, this evolution involves small adjustments to existing legal principles. At other times, however, the warranted response is more transformative. For instance, the growing threat of global warming and, in particular, the significant role humans play in contributing to it may call for a transformative shift in how we understand and apply the tort of public nuisance. Another is the increasing awareness of the danger posed by private, rather than merely state, suppression of speech. Online platforms, employers, and even landlords often engage in censorship, leaving platform users, employees, and tenants unable to engage in expressive acts. Although tort liability for private censorship remains limited, recent developments suggest that changes in the law may be on the horizon. This course will offer in-depth examinations of these and other important transformations in and around the law of torts. At a more general level, engaging in these micro-based analyses of the law of torts can illuminate the broader, macro-based questions such as how tort law can respond to emerging challenges and what tort law is for. By examining these shifts, the course will address not only the future of tort law but also foundational questions about its role of addressing the demands of freedom, equality, justice, and legitimacy in a rapidly evolving world.

No casebook will be used.