NEW TORTS?

At the end of the 28th Annual Clifford Symposium, I asked our distinguished faculty what the topic for the 29th Symposium ought to be. With surprising alacrity and unanimity, they urged exploration of the development of “new torts.” The scholars invited to speak at this year’s Symposium have identified the broadest range of topics as relevant to our conversations. They have focused on individual harms, public nuisance, health care and medicine, the impact of technological innovation and matters intimately connected to gender.

What is particularly remarkable in the Symposium faculty’s selection of topics is their mixing of the traditional and the innovative. Individual harms as old as battery are said to be ripe for new consideration. The same goes for the centuries-old doctrine of public nuisance, revived and nominated to serve on a number of fronts. At the other extreme, cutting-edge activities in health care and technology are seen by our scholars as in need of serious examination, most particularly those involved with Artificial Intelligence. And, reflecting heightened social concern, our faculty has focused on a number of genderrelated issues.

The mix of topics is rich and varied but, I suspect, will lead both participants and auditors back to core questions about the work that needs to be undertaken by judges, juries, lawyers and scholars to make sure that the rule of law is preserved and the pivotal mission of torts—to protect individuals from the wrongs done by others—is continued.

- Stephan Landsman, Director, Clifford Symposium