An Injury Law Constitution

Author Marshall S. Shapo presents the argument that the body of law Americans have developed concerning responsibility for injuries and prevention of injuries has some of the qualities of a constitution--a fundamental set of principles that govern relations among people and between people and corporate and governmental institutions. This 'injury law constitution' includes tort law, legislative compensation systems like workers compensation, and the many statutes that regulate the safety of risky activities and of products ranging from drugs and medical devices to automobiles and cigarettes. An Injury Law Constitution presents a novel thesis that embraces leading features of the American law of injuries. Professor Shapo's analysis, into which he weaves the history of these varied systems of law, links them to the unique compensation plan devised for the victims of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. Professor Shapo examines how our injury law reflects deeply held views in American society on risk and injury, indicating how the injury law constitution serves as a guide to the question of what it means to be an American. Refusing to accept easy academic formulas, An Injury Law Constitution captures the reality of how people respond to injury risks in functional contexts involving diverse activities and products.

Marshall S. Shapo is Frederic P. Vose Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law. Professor Shapo teaches courses and seminars in torts, the law of dangerous products, and science and the legal system. He received an AB, summa cum laude, and LLB, magna cum laude, from the University of Miami, where he was first in both his college and law school classes and editor-in-chief of the University of Miami Law Review. His graduate degrees are an AM in history and an SJD, both from Harvard. Before his appointment to the Northwestern faculty in 1978, he was Joseph M. Hartfield Professor of Law at the University of Virginia and a professor at the University of Texas School of Law. Professor Shapo has been a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford University (1975), and Cambridge University (1992 and 2001). He has authored numerous articles and books including, Compensation for Victims of Terror (Oceana, 2005), Experimenting With the Consumer (2009) and a two-volume treatise The Law of Products Liability, now in its Fifth Edition (2011).