Class 11

Introduction to Negligence: The Reasonable Person and Breach

Negligence is perhaps the defining claim of American tort law. Most simply, negligence requires defendants to meet a duty of reasonable care. But what does it mean to demand that a person act reasonably? Should we factor in an individual’s disability, age, race, sex, or personal experience in defining what is reasonable under the circumstances? Is there a consistent or coherent way to define a duty of reasonable care?

We will take up the influential (but always controversial) idea that to behave reasonably is to make those choices that cost-benefit analysis requires. Does this idea capture the values that justify what is unquestionably an expensive tort system?

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