About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

64 Md. L. Rev. 573 (2005)
Liability Insurance and Accident Prevention: The Evolution of an Idea

handle is hein.journals/mllr64 and id is 583 raw text is: LABILITY INSURANCE AND ACCIDENT PREVENTION: THE EVOLUTION OF AN IDEA KENNETH S. ABRAHAM* The tort system has an ambivalent attitude toward liability insur- ance. On the one hand, an insured defendant is more likely to be able to satisfy the full amount of a judgment against it than an unin- sured defendant. Liability insurance is therefore favored, because it facilitates the compensation of successful plaintiffs. On the other hand, liability insurance may generate moral hazard, since other things being equal, insured parties are likely to be less concerned about the threat of liability than uninsured parties. Liability insurance may thereby undermine accident prevention. For more than a century now this ambivalence has manifested itself in a variety of ways, in both judicial decisions and in debates about tort reform. This Article is about the way in which ideas about the relation between liability insurance and accident prevention have evolved from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present. These ideas are part of a larger story about the symbiotic relationship be- tween tort liability and insurance during this entire period. Much more is involved in this story than liability insurance and accident pre- vention alone. Other forms of insurance, and other goals, also figure prominently. And the story involves more than ideas. The way in which tort liability and various forms of insurance have influenced each other in practice is at least as significant as the way that ideas about this relationship have evolved. Nonetheless, ideas have conse- quences, and ideas about this relationship-including Guido Cala- bresi's important ideas about it-have affected the development of the law for nearly two centuries now. This Article is being presented during a portion of the Confer- ence1 devoted to Calabresi's impact on the law and scholarship of mass torts. Although the influence of ideas about the relation be- * Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor of Law and Class of 1966 Research Profes- sor, University of Virginia School of Law. I am grateful to my colleagues Vincent Blasi and G. Edward White for their comments on an earlier version of this Article. Portions of the Article are part of a book I am writing about the influence of tort liability on the develop- ment of insurance, and the influence of insurance on the development of tort liability, over the last 150 years. 1. Calabresi's The Costs ofAccidents. A Generation of Impact on Law and Scholarship, University of Maryland School of Law (April 23-24, 2004).

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most