Jennifer K. Robbennolt and Valerie P. Hans: The Psychology of Tort Law

Date01 September 2016
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2016.00764.x
Published date01 September 2016
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TORT LAW by JENNIFER K. ROBBENNOLT
AND VALERIE P. HANS
(New York: New York University Press, 2016, 320 pp., $40.00)
The Psychology of Tort Law is the inaugural book in a new Psychology and
Law Series by New York University Press. Capturing Robbennolt and Hans
to launch the series is a coup ± but we are promised in the preface that all
volumes will be authored by eminent scholars. The General Editor, Linda
Demaine, describes ambitious goals for the series in her preface. Broadly the
series seeks to expand the intersection of law and psychology beyond what
have become the traditional areas of psychology's influence in legal dis-
cussion and debate (she notes in particular eyewitness testimony, false
confessions, and jury decision making) by providing `trusted resources' to
translate findings from psychological studies and apply them to legal issues
(p. ix). More specifically, the primary target is students in United States law
schools. The series `applies psychology to subjects covered in the core law
school curriculum' (p. x). The hope is that the books will be adopted in law
classrooms, and they are designed to map onto other law teaching materials.
This limits considerably the potential interest of the present book for much
of the readership of the Journal of Law and Society ± but perhaps less than
might initially be thought. I return to the question below.
The parameters set by the series have led to a book that is very expansive
but at the same time narrowly conceived. After a chapter on the `real world'
of tort the core of the book is organized around topics in an American law
school torts curriculum. There are chapters on intentional torts, negligence,
causation, limits on liability, damages, defences, and products liability. In
respect of each, the chapter introduces its topic via an illustrative actual case,
identifies legal issues, and reviews relevant insights offered by modern
psychological research or a psychological perspective. The formula works
differently in different chapters but in all of them psychological questions
and literature are engagingly introduced through examples of cases, and all
are built around an overview of selected legal issues.
The scope of the first four of the core chapters is primarily defined by
aspects of tort doctrine that seem to have counterparts in human psychology.
Under `Intentional Torts', the chapter reviews the psychology of how
intentionality is attributed and the consequences for how an action is judged.
Under `Negligence', risk-utility calculations, the `reasonable person', and
how `reasonableness' is judged after the fact are discussed from a psycho-
logical perspective. Under `Causation', work on causal intuitions and the
psychology of attributing causes and blame is reviewed. `Limits on Liability'
builds around limitations on the duty to rescue and on recovery for emotional
harm and proximate harm. `Defences' is similarly built around elements of
tort doctrine such as contributory negligence, self-defence, and defence of
property. The psychology in these chapters is often extrapolated from
psychological studies investigating phenomena and psychological processes
474
ß2016 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2016 Cardiff University Law School

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