A “rights-based” approach to tort law
October 1, 2014
Professors Jason Neyers, Andrew Botterell, Erika Chamberlain, Stephen Pitel and Zoe Sinel have been awarded a $16,000 Bridge Grant from Western’s internal SSHRC support program to conduct a one-year project titled “Rights and Tort Law: A Canadian Perspective”.
Only nine projects across the university were chosen to receive funding. The project aims to elaborate a distinctive approach to Canadian tort law.
“Tort law sets out the non-consensual obligations members of society owe to each other,” said Neyers, the project’s principal investigator. “Over the past 40 years, principled decision making has been replaced with a fuzzy and impressionistic analysis that focuses primarily on whether injured plaintiffs ‘deserve’ compensation for their losses,” said Neyers.
Those advocating for a rights-based approach have challenged this compensation-for-loss approach.
The team’s research will articulate and explain the rights-based approach and evaluate whether it provides a better explanation of Canadian tort law than the compensation-for-loss approach.
“The result of the project will be a better and more complete understanding of what tort law is and what it means to protect and vindicate private law rights,” Neyers said.
“We hope it will contribute to the important task of improving the justness and coherence of the law, the benefits of which ultimately accrue to everyone.”
This article appeared in the Western Law 2014 Alumni Magazine.
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