Possible Explanations for Legal Development

A number of possible explanations for development can be identified from the existing literature:

External to the law

1. technological: changes in the nature of the causes of harms and the power of human control over the relevant events
2. economic: changes in the cost of harm, the economic importance of types of harm, and ability to pay (e.g. in the medical area the transfer of the provision of health care from charity to the state)
3. insurance: changes in the ways in which those potentially liable protect themselves and can fund payments for injuries and in forms of social protection
4. social and political values: welfarism and consumerism encourage more attention to the victim

Internal to the law

1. procedural: do changes in procedure make certain categories of litigation easier or more common?
2. ideas and values: what are the dominant ideas among lawyers and how do these gain currency?
3. doctrinal writing: what is the authority and influence of academic writers who may have a more speculative approach to the foundations of liability
4. judicial dynamics: what are the dynamics among judges ƒ{ their ideas and competition among them