Technology-driven expectations of safety expanded legal obligations and litigation
Evidence
As these examples suggest, by establishing entitlements and imposing obligations, law defines what constitutes a litigable grievance. This definition may vary from one society to another and may change over time within a society, as the law responds to shifts in public opinion. Some scholars attribute part of the increase in litigation in the United States and elsewhere to legal changes brought about by just such a shift in public opinion. They contend that as advances in science and technology have made it possible to control situations of peril or need, the public has begun to claim a right to be free from unnecessary risk. The law, reflecting this claim, has imposed obligations on government and private parties to deliver goods and services that meet achievable standards of safety and usefulness. It has also made it easy to sue when these obligations are not met; as a result, civil suits have increased. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1056
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the course theme of how competing values (freedom from risk vs. liability) shape doctrine over time. — connects to: Technological control over risk expanded legal rights and lawsuits; Legal systems change in response to social and technological shifts — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 118; Technological change creates personal-relations harms that rigid common-law rules cannot address — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 1127
Broader Connections
- Technological control over risk expanded legal rights and lawsuits
#corroborates(0.95) - Legal systems change in response to social and technological shifts
#expands(0.82) — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 118 - Technological change creates personal-relations harms that rigid common-law rules cannot address
#expands(0.78) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 1127