Torts: A Guide for the Busy 1L   Tags: torts  

CALI lessons allow you to work through different tort rules and doctrines in an interactive format in which you answer questions and explain your reasoning.  If you are confused or have questions about an issue, a CALI lesson may provide a quick way to test and improve your knowledge.

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The first rule you should follow in Torts class is to carefully read the material in your casebook several times.  While your assigned readings and class discussions should be your primary concerns, treatises, hornbooks, and texts provide additional perspectives, analyses, and explanations to help you make sense of tort law.  It is important to choose your supplementary readings with care, because some study aids make tort law seem simpler than it really is.  The concepts and rules of tort law are open-ended, and judges, lawyers, and scholars disagree about their meaning and application.  This means that if you have a question about a tort concept or rule, it is a good idea to see how several different commentators treat the concept or rule.  With these caveats in mind, the following are sources that provide useful discussion, analysis, and explanation of issues in tort law:

Fowler V. Harper, Fleming James, Jr., and Oscar S. Gray, Harper, James, and Gray on Torts, 3rd ed. (Aspen Publishers, 1995 (updated regularly)).  This treatise is on Law Library reserve. For further information, click on the call number: KF1250 .H37 2006.

Dan B. Dobbs, Dobbs's Law of Torts (West Publishing, 2000).  This hornbook is on Law Library reserve.   For further information, click on the call number: KF1250 .D58 2000.

Dan B. Dobbs, Robert E. Keeton, W. Page Keeton, David G. Owen, and William L. Prosser, Prosser and Keeton's Torts, 5th ed. (West Publishing, 1984).  This hornbook is on Law Library reserve.   For further information, click on the call number: KF1250 .P7 1984b.

Richard Epstein, Torts, Introduction to Law (Aspen Publishers, 1999). There is a copy of this text on reserve, and a second copy is available in the Law Library's study aids collection, which is located in the bookcase on your right as you enter the law library.   For further information, click on the call number: KF1249 .E673 1999

Joseph W. Glannon, The Law of Torts: Examples and Explanations, 4th ed. (Aspen Publishers, 2010).  Besides a clear discussion of tort principles and doctrines, the last three chapters provide information and guidance about how to take an issue-spotter exam.  Copies of this text are available in the Law Library's study aids collection, which is located in the bookcase on your right as you enter the law library.   For further information, click on the call number: KF1250 .Z9 G58 2005

Fischl and Paul, Getting to Maybe: How to Excel on Law School Exams, (CAP, 1999). KF 283 .F47 1999

Historically tort law has been judge-made law.  In other words, the rules and doctrines of tort law emerged and evolve as judges make decisions in private litigation.  The various Restatements of Torts distill the concepts and rules articulated in tort decisions and present them in an conceptually organized format. Besides stating rules and principles, the Restatement also includes lengthy comments explaining those rules and principles as well as examples to illustrate their application.

Students should bear in mind that the Restatements in themselves have no precedential value, although they can acquire precedential value to the extent that courts recognize and adopt particular provisions.  Many aspects of the Restatement (Third) of Torts are controversial, and it is not yet clear what impact it will have on American tort law.   

Restatement (Second) Torts, §§ 1-280

Restatement (Second) Torts, §§ 281-503

Restatement (Second) Torts, §§ 504-707A

Restatement (Second) Torts, §§ 708-End

Restatement (Third) Torts: Product Liability

Restatement (Third) Torts: Apportionment of Liablity

Restatement (Third) Torts: Liability for Physical and Emotional Harm (The first volume appeared in 2010, but is not yet available through HeinOnline.  The second volume is scheduled to appear in 2011.) 

The website for AudioCaseFiles allows you to download an audio version of the many important torts opinions as an MP3 file.

To register for an AudioCaseFiles account, go to http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/pdp/index.asp?ID=54 and follow the instructions.  If you have problems registering, please contact Beth Adelman at the Law Library for assistance. 

For a list of audiorecorded opinions that are included in Farnsworth and Grady's Torts: Cases and Questions, click here.

For a list of audiorecorded opinions that are included in Franklin, Rabin, and Green's Tort Law and Alternatives, click here.

For a list of all torts opinions available on AudioCaseFiles, click here.

In recent years legal scholars and social scientists have done sophisticated and creative research on tort law, tort litigation, and the cultural and social functions of the tort system.Here are some recent examples of this important work. 

Martha Chamallas and Jennifer Wriggins, The Measure of Injury: Race, Gender, and Tort Law (NYU Press, 2010).  For more information, click on the call number: KF1257 .C43 2010

David M. Engel and Michael McCann, Fault Lines: Tort Law as Cultural Practice (Stanford Law Books, 2009).  For more information, click on the call number: K923 .F37 2009

William Haltom and Michael McCann, Distorting the Law: Politics, Media, and the Litigation Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 2004),  For more information, click on the call number: KF380 .H35 2004

Neil Vidmar and Valerie Hans, American Juries: The Verdict (Prometheus Books, 2007)