Strict product-liability rules generate competing claims about safety and innovation.

Evidence

Some commentators insist these rulings have enhanced the safety of consumers by raising the costs that businesses pay for accidents, negligence, and poorly designed products. These higher costs, they argue, give businesses an incentive to remove dangerous items from the market and to develop safer products. However, other commentators claim that the nation’s tort law system hinders innovation and reduces the competitiveness of U.S. firms without increasing safety. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3399

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the course’s recurring question of how competing values like fairness and efficiency shape doctrine.