Torts and Choice of Law: Searching for Principles

Authors

Keith N. Hylton, Boston University School of LawFollow

Author granted license

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2006

ISSN

0022-2208

Publisher

Association of American Law Schools

Language

en-US

Abstract

If a tortious act (e.g., negligently firing a rifle) occurs in state X and the harm (e.g., killing a bystander) occurs in state Y, which state's law should apply? This is a simple example of the choice of law problem in torts. The problem arises between states or provinces with different laws within one nation and between different nations. In this article I discuss this problem largely in terms of incentive effects and also consider where this topic might be addressed in a torts course.

Comments

Updated with published version of paper on 9/24/22

Working paper available on SSRN

Recommended Citation

Keith N. Hylton, Torts and Choice of Law: Searching for Principles , in 56 Journal of Legal Education 551 (2006).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/783