Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, Vol. 37, No. 1, New Directions in Liability Law, (1988), pp. 18-30
Abstract
For the past decade there have been growing complaints that American society has suffered a hypertrophy of its legal institutions. It has become a commonplace that the United States is the most litigious country on earth, indeed in human history. An obsessively contentious population, egged on by an intrusive activist judiciary, is said to be enthralled with adversary combat. As the volume of law, lawyers, and lawsuits has risen, there is said to have been a concomitant erosion of self-reliance, of the sense of community, and of the informal mechanisms by which society once regulated itself. The excessive resort to law, in short, is said to threaten not just needless expense but also moral decline and far-reaching political and economic ills.
