Individual and Institutional Responsibility: A Vision for Comparative Fault in Products Liability

Since the adoption of strict products liability over the last thirty years, two problems of scope have received the most attention: how to define product defectiveness to which the liability attaches, and how to limit the potentially limitless liability through defenses. Much like the industries of the nineteenth century, product liability defendants of the twentieth century turned to the plaintiff's conduct as a main line of defense. Blaming the victim has historically been a powerful tool for tort defendants to evade responsibility for their conduct. This Article proposes that the defenses based on victim fault that have evolved in our products liability system do not adequately balance the responsibilities of the institutional and individual actors who are part of the product relationship.