Product liability

Part 1 of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 implemented an EEC Directive which created the most important new statutory liability in the post-war era in the UK. The author takes this development as her starting point in an investigation into the nature of product liability and beyond, into a consideration of important general topics in civil liability today. The first part of the book deals with the doctrinal history of the new Act, then goes on to consider the larger picture, viz. the impact of EC membership on the legislative freedom of Member States, and the contrasting dynamics of US civil liability. Part 2 evaluates the usefulness of abstract theories of civil liability from the perspective of a tort lawyer concerned with detailed legal rules; part 3 analyses where and why instability may arise in legal regimes of limited scope and in broader liabilities such as negligence. An erudite and provocative work, Stapleton: Product Liability will be of keen interest to students and teachers on courses in tort, product liability, consumer law, EC law and the philosophical foundations of the common law.