Edited by Walter Olson, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute (The Academy of Political Science, 1988)

What caused liability insurance rates to rise so dramatically in the 1980s? In New Directions in Liability Law, a series of papers from a 1987 conference cosponsored by the Academy of Political Science and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, legal scholars debate whether this increase is due to behavior by insurance companies or is the result of rapidly expanding liability in contemporary tort law. Contributing authors such as now-Judge Michael McConnell, economist Kip Viscusi and Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Peter Huber discuss what, if anything, can be done about the liability insurance crisis.