“Risk” and the “legal system” are ambiguous terms. Here they are clarified, then considered from the standpoint of the objectives, methods, and problems of legal intervention in a world of inevitable risk.
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References
1.
1. See Clayton P. Gillette and James E. Krier, “Risk, Courts, and Agencies,”University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 138:1027, 1070-1086 (Apr. 1990).
2.
2. Ibid., pp. 1032-36.
3.
3. These matters are covered in more detail in other articles in this volume.
4.
4. Instead of or in addition to seeking damages, risk victims might ask for injunctive relief, a court order that the risk producer abate its risky activities. See Richard A. Epstein, Cases and Materials on Torts, 6th ed. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1995), pp. 714-715.
5.
5. Ibid., pp. 487-88.
6.
Bill Charles Wells , “The Grin Without the Cat: Claims for Damages from Toxic Exposure Without Present Injury,”William & Mary Journal of Environmental Law, 18:285 (Spring 1994).
7.
7. The reasons for this, having to do in part with the so-called salience of certain kinds of risk threats, are considered in other parts of this volume.
8.
8. See Gillette and Krier, “Risk, Courts, and Agencies,” pp. 1107-1108.
