Journal of Legal Research

Journal of Legal Research

Effect of Loss Distribution on Deterrence Function of Tort Law

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran.
Abstract
In the tort liability, damages are distributed by modern institutions such as insurances, strict liability of companies or traditional and jurisprudential institutions such as kinsmanship. Although these loss distributive institutions have advantages such as assuring compensation of the injured or reducing the injurer’s burden of compensation, some analyzers believe that the facilities such institutions provide to the two parties can deteriorate the deterrence role of the civil liability and promote imprudence. Therefore although these institutions are in line with the tort liability system in terms of compensating the damage, they have a reverse effect in terms of deterrence and promote imprudence. In contrast, there are reasons that reject critique of the mechanism of these institutions. The reasons include the existence of other deterrent factors along with tort liability such as the sense of misrepresentation of individuals, the ineffectiveness attributable to the tort liability system in the realization of deterrence and the prediction of mechanisms in loss distributive institutions to prevent imprudence. Hence, the distributive institutions generally, unlike the initial perception, if don’t have a positive effect on deterrence, they don’t have at least negative effect on it and did not expedite the spread of it.
Keywords

  • Persian References:

    • Abu ata, Mohammad. “general average”. Law quartely3 (2008) 19-42 (in persian)
    • Badini, Hasan. Ali Eslami Farsani. “ Physical damage provision fund: drawing the current situation and future prospects” . legal research journal 66(2014): 31-50(in persian)
    • Hasan. Philosophy of civil liability. 1th edition, Tehran: Enteshar Co, 2005 (in persian)
    • Khodabakhshi, Abdollah. Insurance law and civil liability. 3th edition. Tehran: : Enteshar Co, 2021 (in persian)
    • Rafiee, Peyman. Reza Jafari. “ Reflecting on the status of institutions similar to the Bodily Damage Fund in other countries (in order to compensate for damages caused by traffic accidents)". News of the insurance world 189 (2013) (in persian)
    • Sadeghineshat, Amir. Khadije Shafiee Alavije. “ The Role of Risk in General Avrage” law quartely 4 (2012): 137-156 (in persian)
    • Sardouii Nasab, Mohammad. “A different theoretical basis of Aqila’s civil liability.  Mofid legal magazine 64 (2007) (in persian)
    • Tajbakhsh, Mohammad Bagher. “ General Average” . Journal of Chamber of Commerce letter 155 (1968):40-45 (in persian)

     

    English References:

    - Calabresi, Guido. “Some Thoughts on Risk Distribution and the Law of Torts”. The Yale Law Journal, 70(1961), 499-553.
    - Cardi, W. Jonathan, Randall D. Penfield & Albert H. Yoon. “Does Tort Law Deter Individuals? A Behavioral Science Study”. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 9, 3(2012), 567-603. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-1461.2012.01263.x
    - Cohen, Alma and Rajeev Dehejia. “The Effect of Automobile Insurance and Accident Liability Laws on Traffic Fatalities”. Journal of Law & Economics, 47, 2(2004), 357-393. https://doi.org/10.1086/422978
    - Cummins, J. David, Richard D. Phillips and Mary A. Weiss. “The Incentive Effect of No Fault Automobile Insurance”. Journal of Law & Economics, 44, 2(2001), 427-464. https://doi.org/10.1086/322818
    - Eads, George & peter Reuter. “Designing Safer Products: Corporate Responses to Product Liability Law and Regulation”. Journal of Products Liability, 7(1984), 263-294.
    - Edmonds, Timothy. “Briefing Parer of Uninsured drivers and the Motor Insurers Bureau”, 2015. Available at: www.parliament.uk/commons-library/intranet.parliament.uk/commons library/papers. (Accessed 16 June 2017)
    - Fleming, James. “Accident Liability Reconsidered: The Impact of Liability Insurance”. Yale Law Journal, 57, (1948), 549-570. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13051/2459
    - Fleming, John G. “Is There A Future for Tort”. Louisiana Law Review, 44, 5(1984), 1192-1212. Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol44/iss5/5
    - Heaton, Paul and Eric Helland, No-Fault Insurance and Automobile Accidents, 2008. Available at: https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR551.html. (Accessed 16 June 2017)
    - Keting, Gregory C. “Distributive and Corrective Justice in the Tort Law of Accidents”. Southern California Review, 74(2000), 193-224.  http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.269347
    - Kochanowski, Paul S. & Madelyn V. Young. “Deterrent Aspects of No Fault Automobile Insurance: Some Empirical Findings”. Journal of Risk and Insurance, 52, 2(1985), 269-288. https://doi.org/10.2307/252515
    - Landes, Elisabeth M. “Insurance, Liability, and Accidents: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation of the Effect of No-Fault Accidents”. Journal of Law and Economics, 25, 1(1982), 49-65. Available at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/jle/vol25/iss1/4
    - Lewis, Richard. “How Important Are Insurers in Compensating Claims for Personal Injury in The U.K?”. The Geneva Papers, 31, (2006), 323-339. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.gpp.2510073
    - Lewis, Richard. The Relationship between Tort Law and Insurance in England and Wales, part of the “tort and insurance law”, ed. Gerhard Wagner. New York: Springer Wien Publisher, 2005.
    - Loughran, David S. “The Effect of No-Fault Auto Insurance on Driver Behavior and Auto Accidents in the United States”. in The Economics and Politics of Choice No-Fault Insurance, ed. Edward L. Lascher, et al. New York: Springer, 2001.
    - McEwin, R. Ian. “No Fault and Road Accidents: Some Australasian Evidence”. International Review of Law and Economics, 9, 1(1989), 13-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/0144-8188(89)90003-3
    - Mooney, Sean F. “The Liability Crisis - A Perspective”. Villanova Law Review, 32, 6(1987), 1235-1264. Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/vlr/vol32/iss6/3
    - Owen, David G. “Deterrence and Desert in Tort: A Comment”. California Law Review, 73(1985), 665-676. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1998&context=law_facpub
    - Perdue, Wendy Collins. “A Reexamination of the Distinction between Loss-Allocating and Conduct-Regulating Rule”. Louisiana Law Review, 60, (2000), 1251-1258. Available at Scholarly Commons: http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/191/
    - Popper, Andrew F. “In Defense of Deterrence”. Albany Law Review, 75, 1(2012), 181-203. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1987134
    - Schwartz, Gary T. “Reality in The Economic Analysis of Tort Law: Dose Tort Law Really Deter?”. UCLA Law Review, 42, 377(1994), 377-444. 
    - Schwartz, Victor E. “Tort Law Reform: Strict Liability and the Collateral Source Rule Do Not Mix”. Vanderbilt Law Review, 39(1986), 569-576.
    - Shavell, Steven. Economic Analysis of Law, 2000. Available at: http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/oline center/ (Accessed 15 September 2017)
    - Sugarman, Stephen D. “Doing Away With Tort Law”. California Law Review, 73, 3(1985), 555-664. https://doi.org/10.2307/3480338
    - Tetley, William. General Average Now and in the Future, 2005. Available at: www.tetley.law.mcgill.ca/maritime/law/genaverage.pdf. (Accessed 2 June 2017)
    - Wagner, Gerhard. “Tort Law and Liability Insurance”. Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, 31, 2(2006), 277-292.  https://www.jstor.org/stable/41949236