Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

2-10-2017

SSRN Discipline

Legal Scholarship Network; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; Law & Society eJournals; Law & Society: Private Law eJournals; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Political Science Network; Environmental & Natural Resources Law eJournals; Management Research Network

Abstract

This article focuses on agreements to commit or induce the commission of a tort Examples include an agreement between factories to use a production process that would pollute a lake or an agreement where one entices another to publish a false statement by promising to share the cost of the injury Such agreements are unenforceable under contract law However the article reveals that tort law not only enforces such wrongdoings it encourages them Tort law picks up where contract law leaves off Tort law allows the injurers who acted on the agreement the polluting factories and the publisher to recover expectation damages from the breaching party who behaved carefully the factory that promised to use a polluting process but did not pollute It also requires the party who commissioned a wrong the one who enticed the publisher and then refused to shoulder the cost of the victim's injury to pay her share as promised Tort law even goes a step further and facilitates "torttracting""”the act of agreeing or precommitting to engage in or sponsor a wrongdoing The result is ironic tort law invites polices and enforces wrongdoing The article explains how tort law allows parties to enter into agreements to commit or induce a tort and how they are enforced In doing so the article sheds a new light on some of the most divisive controversies that have preoccupied scholars and paved their way into the Restatements of Torts and it provides guidance to courts and policymakers

Download

Share

COinS