Causing Harm: A Logico-Legal Study

This book forms an important contribution to the study of the law of torts. It was published several years ago but, unfortunately enough, never received much attention. In the preface the authors compare the book with the classic work of Hart and Honoré (1959) and they do not exaggerate. As in that work, new techniques are used to analyze familiar problems of tort liability and agent causation in an innovative way. Whereas Hart and Honoré made use of language philosophy, Åqvist and Mullock introduce the apparatus of game theory to this area of legal study. The authors set out to explain the notion of agent causation in the context of tort liability for one’s own negligence. In particular, they aim to provide a rational reconstruction of the notions of causation and liability. What does it mean when we say that an agent causes something? When is an agent liable for the consequences of his actions? What do we mean by negligence? Of course, these questions are well known to anyone familiar with the study of human causation, and, in particular, to scholars in the law of torts. However, Åqvist and Mullock address and analyze them in a way which differs radically from that of their predecessors. After an introductory Part 1, the authors present the outlines of their game-theoretic model in Part 2. The most fundamental concept of the model is that of a game-tree, which is a tree structure consisting of decision points and end points located at specific moments in time. The branches between the points represent the decisions made by agents. There are two types of