Harmonizing Wrongs And Compensation

Christopher J. Robinette

In his seminal work, Tort Law In America, Ted White describes tort law as vacillating between a focus that is admonitory, emphasizing conduct that is wrongful, and compensatory, providing the injured with resources to allay their injuries. We are currently in an admonitory period, and, according to White, we have been since around 1980.2 Moreover, we are not at the point that the pendulum starts to swing back to a more compensatory understanding of tort law. We are, however, at a moment of flux in tort theory.