The moral of torts

Abstract

Tort theory is an anxious field, trying either to explain the body of tort law through a unified account or surrendering to the view that torts is just an accumulation of ad hoc “policy” judgments without a consistent explanatory basis. In this chapter, we argue that the natural law theory in the Christian tradition breaks through this impasse in tort theory by showing how the basic outlines of tort law are properly derived from principles of morality, while the details within that framework are left open for choice among a wide range of reasonable arrangements. In our view, central aspects of natural law theory such as its account of the relation of law and morality and the manner in which positive law is derived from the natural law explain and justify tort doctrine.