9: Products Liability
- Page ID
- 11152
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After reading this chapter, you should understand the following:
- How products-liability law allocates the costs of a consumer society
- How warranty theory works in products liability, and what its limitations are
- How negligence theory works, and what its problems are
- How strict liability theory works, and what its limitations are
- What efforts are made to reform products-liability law, and why
In previous chapters, we discussed remedies generally. In this chapter, we focus specifically on remedies available when a defective product causes personal injury or other damages. Products liability describes a type of claim, not a separate theory of liability. Products liability has strong emotional overtones—ranging from the prolitigation position of consumer advocates to the conservative perspective of the manufacturers.