The Duty Problem in Negligence Cases

Abstract

The undertaking to restate the rules and principles developed by the English and American courts finds'in the field of torts a most hopeless task. A loose classification permits an infinite variety of types of conduct to be classed as torts. The rules, for most part, which govern these cases are still liquid. Only the types of conduct which are also designated crimes can be said to be subject to crystallized rules of tort law. Even here the definiteness and certainty ordinarily assumed are illusory. If this bulk of law has not yet been crystallized by the judicial process. in what manner can legal scholars speed up the process? And what is more, where are the stabilizing factors to be found?