Edited by W. Kip Viscusi, Professor, Harvard Law School (AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, 2002)

This collection of papers is adapted from an eponymous conference held by AEI-Brookings in 2001. Although all litigation regulates in that it encourages and deters behaviors, critics of "regulation through litigation" contend that the incentives provided by modern American tort law do not effectively deter the social costs of accidents without overdeterring helpful behavior; that the system is burdened by extremely high waste and administrative costs; and that using courts to resolve all manner of social questions infringes on the delicate checks and balances among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches intended by our constitutional framers. The essays in this collection present both sides of the debate.