Bernstein on the Need to Widen Tort Research to Additional Actors

Anita Bernstein has posted to SSRN her contribution to A Research Agenda for Torts, Extend Tort Principles to Tort Principals.  The abstract provides:

This chapter examines occupational categories (here called “principals”) that effect the values or ends (“principles”) that tort law pursues. The most familiar of tort Principals is the judge. Judges create tort law overtly in the decisions they write and the case law they choose to reference in support of what they decide. Attorneys who advocate for injured persons and injurers, an undertaking that includes integrating these clients’ experiences and perspectives into legal arguments, also function as tort Principals. 

Four less familiar tort Principals occupy this chapter. Among the actors who through their occupations make under-recognized contributions to the substance of tort law in the United States are arbitrators, lead counsel in multiparty litigation, special masters, and partisan speakers in court. Principals like these have a claim to attention from torts researchers because they participate in the creation, undoing, and enhancement of tort principles.