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Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Freiburg.

abstract: Research at the intersection of psychology and law has demonstrated that juror decision-making is subject to many cognitive biases, however, it fails to consider the influence of culturally derived cognitive biases. As jurors become increasingly demographically and culturally diverse it is possible—and even likely—that their attributions might vary because of their cultural background. I predict that cultural and demographic group affiliation affects attributional tendencies such that, compared to situationally focused individuals (those from East Asian cultures, women, those from lower socioeconomic status groups, and older individuals), dispositionally focused individuals (those from Western cultures, men, those from higher socioeconomic status groups, and younger individuals) are less likely to attribute some portion of causation and responsibility for the harm to other influences, and they are more likely to find the defendant liable and hold the defendant financially responsible to a greater degree. This dissertation has three aims: (1) to examine how culturally derived attributional tendencies influence jurors' assessments of causation in complex negligent tort cases where there are multiple causal influences (i.e., multiple tortfeasors and plaintiff negligence) (Studies 1 and 2); (2) to study the implications of those causal determinations on liability determinations, damage awards, and other legal decisions (Studies 1 and 2); and (3) to determine whether these culturally derived attributional tendencies are malleable, suggesting an intervention that might be used to attenuate the influence of attributional tendencies in a trial setting (Study 3). This work advances psychological research on cultural differences in attribution by exploring attributional differences in a new domain, developing a new scale of individual differences in attributional tendencies, and examining how multiple causal influences affects culturally derived attributional tendencies and downstream decision-making. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2017

Este estudo tem como propósito compreender a função punitiva da responsabilidade civil no Brasil com suas características e peculiaridades. São desenvolvidos 10 capítulos para a compreensão do tema. Inicia-se uma análise com a compreensão da própria ideia de função. Posteriormente passa-se a uma específicas funções da responsabilidade civil. É realizado, também, uma incursão histórica no campo da responsabilidade civil para entender a origem da função punitiva. Após, realiza-se uma análise das objeções da função punitiva para, posteriormente, desenvolver sua natureza jurídica; seus objetivos; pressupostos e requisitos; a experiência; e o desenvolvimento dogmático em outros países. O estudo percorre, ainda, as técnicas de aplicação da função punitiva, bem como suas fontes positivadas e a sua interpretação jurisprudencial. / This study aims to understand the function of punitive liability in Brazil with its characteristics and peculiarities. 10 chapters are developed for the understanding of the topic. Begins with an analysis to understand the very idea of function. Later goes to a specific function of the indemnity. It also conducted a historical foray into the field of civil responsibility to understand the origin of the punitive function. After, we make an analysis of the objections of the punitive function to subsequently develop their legal nature, your goals, requirements and assumptions, the experience, and the dogmatic development in other countries. The study also runs the technical application of the punitive function as well as their sources positivadas and its judicial interpretation.

What makes a good common law argument? Ronald Dworkin’s answer commands much respect within legal practice. To him, the correctness of a legal conclusion rests upon its capacity to fit within a narrative of normative progress that judges deliberately impose for the sake of (i) rendering overt the shared membership of discretely decided cases within a single determinate category (ii) depictive of moral attractiveness at its best. Yet, the inherent plausibility of Dworkin’s presentation of judicial reasoning has ironically resulted in the erosion of respect for the common law. If judicial narratives are imposed for aesthetic considerations, then legal conclusions must – per Kant – be mere idiosyncratic judicial desires that have the added quality of being objectively intelligible to other individuals who could nonetheless – owing to the absence of any criteria of norm correctness – justifiably disagree. If accurate, this characterization of legal decision-making would be anemic with modernity’s conviction that law is an entity inherently distinguishable from power because of the rationality – and therefore non-dogmatic nature – of its dictates. This thesis demonstrates – contra Dworkin – that judicial narratives go hand-in-hand with rationality. Judicial reasoning is thus of great importance to the aspirational goal of governance through law. As will be seen, only a constructed narrative renders possible the objective demonstrability (i) of the membership of discrete judicial decisions within the classificatory ambit of a specific norm and (ii) the legitimacy of that specific norm’s selection – from a set of countless other possibilities - via its evidential capacity to order those same discrete decisions tentatively asserted to be under its ambit into a coherent whole. Thus, because (i) the narrative is the methodological process by which a norm comes into agreement with its observed applications and (ii) truth is exactly this just-mentioned correspondence between intellect and reality, narrative construction is – quite properly – logic.

The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge level of vocational laboratory teachers in technical colleges and institutes in Alabama regarding tort liability concerning negligence. Furthermore, the study sought to determine the extent to which these same teachers observed and enforced safety practices in the conduct of their vocational laboratory classes. The investigator examined whether relationships existed between knowledge and practice and the factors of location--urban, suburban, or rural, level of education, teaching experience, age, gender, and industrial experience. Two hundred and ninety-seven vocational laboratory teachers in the technical colleges and institutes in Alabama participated in the study. The researcher did not make a random selection of vocational laboratory teachers, but included all vocational laboratory teachers as identified by the president/director of each institution upon the researcher's visit to the institution. A three-part questionnaire was used in collecting the data for this study. Part A contained eight items designed to collect personal data relative to the participants. Part B was. composed of twenty items designed to assess the knowledge of the participants concerning tort liability and negligence. Part C was composed of twenty-four items designed to assess the practice which related to the participants as vocational laboratory teachers. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), second edition (1975), was used inasmuch as the frequencies, percentages, and correlations could be computed by this one program. The Pearson productmoment coefficient of correlation was used to determine the relationship between knowledge and practice. Chi square (χ²) was used to determine the relationship between variables for both knowledge and practice items. No significant relationship was found between knowledge and practice. There was no significant relationship between the variables of location, level of training, teaching experience, gender, age and industrial experience and the knowledge level of vocational laboratory teachers regarding the body of law concerning tort liability regarding negligence. There was no significant relationship between the variables of location, teaching experience, age and industrial experience and the safety practices and procedures used by the vocational laboratory teachers. The null hypotheses for these variables were retained. There was. a significant relationship between the variables of gender and level. of training and the safety practices and procedures used by the vocational laboratory teachers. The null hypotheses for these two variables were, therefore, rejected. / Ed. D.

Tort laws aim to deter risky medical practices and increase accountability for harm. This research examines their effects on deterrence of a high-risk obstetric practice in the United States: elective early-term (37-38 weeks gestation) induction of labor. Using birth certificate data from the Natality Detail Files and state-level data from publicly available sources, this study analyzes the effects of tort laws on labor induction with multilevel models (MLM) of 665,491 early-term births nested in states. Results reveal that caps on damages are associated with significantly higher odds of early-term induction and Proportionate Liability (PL) is associated with significantly lower odds compared to Joint and Several Liability (JSL). The findings suggest that clinicians are more likely to engage in practices that defy professional guidelines in tort environments with lower legal burdens. I discuss the implications of the findings for patient safety and the deterrence of high-risk practices.

This dissertation analyzed public court decisions in cases against Oklahoma school districts and their employees involving sovereign immunity claims filed under Oklahoma's Governmental Tort Claims Act. The questions addressed were: (1) How have the Oklahoma courts interpreted the Governmental Tort Claims Act, (Okla. Stat. tit. 51 § 151 et seq.) in litigation against school districts and their employees? (2) What are the limits of immunity protection for Oklahoma school districts and their employees? (3) How has the statute of limitations in Okla. Stat. tit. 51 § 156 and Okla. Stat. tit. 51 § 157 been applied to Oklahoma educators in tort litigation? This dissertation utilized legal research as the methodology to answer the research questions. Chapter II provides a review of existing literature regarding sovereign immunity in the United States. Chapter III is a comprehensive study of Oklahoma sovereign immunity cases filed against Oklahoma school districts and educators under the Governmental Tort Claims Act with regard to negligence, corporal punishment and the statute of limitations. Chapter IV discusses the findings of the analysis of cases in Oklahoma and the amount of protection afforded to Oklahoma school districts and educators.

Public opinion in recent years has been seemingly manipulated by superfluous stories, bad press, and negative commentaries regarding the perceived "Medical Malpractice Crisis." It has initiated a political attack on Florida's tort system which has resulted in making valid medical malpractice claims even more so difficult for victimized plaintiffs to pursue. After months of diligent research, and with the loyal aid of my university advisors and the dedicated law librarians I've had the honor to work with, I have thoroughly analyzed Florida's past and present medical malpractice tort reforms and governing procedural laws; in addition to arguing, by virtue of this thesis, why these reforms were truly enacted, how traditional tort reforms have egregiously compromised public interests, why Florida's future--with regard to legislative change--is grim, and how new, innovative tort reforms--such as those established overseas--could genuinely benefit Floridians. The premise of the conclusion reached in this research is partially iterated in a quote by the critically acclaimed "Insurance Law Expert," Tom Baker: "...the medical malpractice myth. Built on a foundation of urban legend mixed with the occasional true story, supported by selective references to academic studies, and repeated so often that even the mythmakers forget the exaggeration, half truth, and outright misinformation employed in the service of their greater good, the medical malpractice myth has filled doctors, patients, legislators, and voters with the kind of fear that short circuits critical thinking." --Baker, T. (2005). The medical malpractice myth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

This paper looks at Texas tort law reform to make claims regarding the relationship between Texas tort reform and damages recovered. Starting with reform in 1977, Texas has passed 15 pieces of legislation that, in principle, restrict the damages plaintiffs recover. Most empirical analyses have focused primarily on analyzing behavior resulting from the tort reform. In other cases, research has looked at the impact the most recent reform has had on damages recovered in medical malpractice lawsuits. This paper is the first to study the impact of Texas tort law reform on damages recovered while looking at the entirety of recent law reform in the state. Specifically, I test the impact of the 15 different laws on total allocated loss, economic loss, and noneconomic loss recovered in all cases from 1988-2012. My findings suggest that caps on medical liability damages are successful at decreasing damages recovered when the cap is geared at either noneconomic damages, or a total damage figure that excludes punitive damages. This suggests that future caps on medical liability damages should explicitly cap either economic or noneconomic damages. Next, the results imply that caps on punitive damage legislature were most successful when using specific value caps paired with an evidence standard—caps of this nature decreased total damages by 28% in 1987 and 85% in 1995. Finally, an introductory legislation restricting the use of joint and several liability in cases when plaintiffs had little guilt was successful, it decreased total damages by 18.6%. This was followed by three failed attempts to impact the application of joint and several liability where the guilt threshold was higher, suggesting that joint and several liability is rarely used if the plaintiff has substantial guilt.