Customer Reviews

Tort Law And Alternatives: Cases And Materials (University Casebook)

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Alternatively, it makes you crave its sentience, so you can commit an intentional tort on it. Must one be capable of sentience in order to be the victim of an intentional tort? Could one commit a tort on a tort? I assume those questions are posed somewhere in this book (the latter is sufficiently idiotic that my presumption about it might actually be correct). The answers will be in something like the following form: "recall infra at p. 666."* It doesn't matter that you can't recall infra, because you haven't read it yet. Nor that infra will probably be a summary of some other case's holding that is so cryptic it could stand for just about anything (short, most likely, of an answer to the original question).

Here's an example. Note 6 on page 602 tells us that "An important question in judging the need for, and adequacy of, warnings is to whom they are addressed. The normal rule is that they must reach the person who is likely to use the product. Sometimes, though, that may not be feasible, as where children may be users. One cluster of cases involves the claim that disposable cigarette lighters are dangerous because they are likely to fall into the hands of very young children who could easily get them to work. In addition to attacks on the design, claims were also made that a warning was needed. Compare Bean v. BIC Corp...(jury question whether warnings on the package and lighter were adequate)...Recall the Tokai case, p. 592 supra and see note 9 infra."

I didn't particularly care for note 9, and wasn't about to recall the Tokai case. (I find they recur in my nightmares, so it's overkill to recollect them while I'm awake, too.) But that all ended up being fine, because note 6 was actually dealt with, not in the specified supra or infra, but in note 12 on page 606. Note 12 teaches us "[N]ote [6] suggested that with products aimed at children or that might harm children the appropriate addressee is the parent or guardian..."

Is that what you got from note 6? I didn't. Maybe I would have if note 6 had stopped before talking about cigarette lighters. But, a theme in this book, it didn't stop when it should have. It went on to talk about some niche of the law, in the process indicating that it's sometimes up to the jury whether the warnings on a lighter are adequate - I assumed, given that the fact something is a lighter is sufficient to warn adults of its dangers (one that might not be foreseeable: setting your future livelihood on fire while burning a textbook) - FOR CHILDREN TO UNDERSTAND.

But I guess that's not what note 6 is about. And that, other than its nightmarish organization and really everything else about it, is the most fundamental problem with this book. Under the guise of teaching that the law is unsettled, it ends up not teaching the law at all.

* Actually, I've never seen this particular mistake in the book. It knows its supras from its infras. That particular competency is unsurprising, given how many times the devices are made use of. I've seen sierpinski triangles less recursive than this POS.

Well organized, thoughtful questions, demanding material.

I won't give all the props to the authors though, my really awesome professor helped.

I never encountered a less useful book during all my three long years at law school. Do youself a favor and buy a companion guide- nutshell or something.

You will most likely not buy this book for fun but because your 1st year law professor tells you to. Most parts of the book are very dry and it takes a long time to read it properly. The cases are good, standard Tort cases. The most helpful explanations can be found in the Notes and Questions. While the book is dry bordering on boring, the Notes and Questions at the end of each chapter will give you a much better understanding of the information. Franklin and Rabin deal with physical injuries, non-physical harm, causation, trespass and liability.

Not a great reference book, which it doesn't pretend to be. Very much a standard text book to be used for first year Tort Law.

The notes in this book were the most interesting of any case book I have used in law school so far. It gives you the rules, other useful cases, and real-life changes to think about. The cases are all the same in every Tort casebook for the most part, but the editing kept this book well paced.

There are so many note cases that outlining is a huge pain. Granted torts requires quite a bit of material to be covered in such a short amount of time but the vast majority of the material is almost superfluous and unneeded. A part of the hassle of this book is a necessary evil of the course (regardless of the book) but the editors don't lead you to a better understanding of the material. Instead their focus would appear to be simply to demonstrate all the exceptions that you will never be questioned about.

Particularly when compared to the classic Prosser & Keaton, it is pretty clear that this text is geared toward tort "reform." There are long excerpts from law review articles written by the authors (how modest.) Conservative points of view are offered without "alternatives." The history of torts in the common law is rather distorted, particularly regarding strict liability which these authors present like it is a surprising new invention. The Products Restatement is overemphasized. And too many cases that come out aberrantly for the defense are included. If nothing else deters you from registering for the class that uses this book, consider how you would feel about a book called "Tax Law and Alternatives" or "Contract Law and Alternatives." This is law school folks. The alternatives are Med School and B-School. As long as you're in law school please try to find out what the law is. What somebody thinks it should be is all well and good, but it is not helpful to present "alternatives" as thought they are the current state of tort law.

I ordered two books and paid extra for faster shipping. One book they didn't have instock so I had to order it from someone else. The other book still took a week to get to me. Overall it was fine.

Easy to work with...book arrived as described...when it turned out that I didn't need this particular book the return was smooth. Thanks for being so easy to work with!

The book arrived just as described and seller shipped fast! Will do business with this seller again.