Introduction

Assigning responsibility for harm involves both legal and moral considerations with respect to the factors that trigger responsibility. This book provides an economic perspective on these issues, centering on the objective of minimizing the costs associated with risky activities. The primary focus will be on the role of the legal system in pursuing this goal, though consideration will also be given to how moral concerns are manifested in law. The conceptual framework will be the economic theory of externalities, which relies on a causal relation between the actions of one party and the consequences felt by others. This first chapter lays out the agenda for this analysis and summarizes the arguments in subsequent chapters.