Restatement of the Law Third,
Torts: Products Liability
Revises and updates the Restatement Second of Torts. Completely superseding Section 402A of Restatement Second, promulgated 34 years ago, this monumental new work comprehensively covers the complex field of products liability. The text responds to products liability issues that have become points of serious contention in the courts, but which were not part of the products liability landscape when the earlier provision was adopted in 1964. (See legal text below)
The American Law Institute’s
Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Products Liability
Comprehensively covers this complex field
Completely superseding Section 402A of Restatement Second of Torts, published more than three decades ago, this landmark work
· Addresses contemporary issues that have become points of serious contention in the courts but that were not part of the products liability landscape in 1964.
· Provides clearer answers to the question of whether a product is defective by formulating three distinct categories of product defect:
• Manufacturing defects
• Design defects
• Warning defects
and the legal standards appropriate to each.
· Develops separate rules for special products and product markets.
· Furnishes extensive guidance to all who practice in the increasingly controversial area of products liability law.
Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Products Liability, which deals with the liability of commercial product sellers and distributors for harm caused by their products, is the first segment to be completed of the Institute’s long-term undertaking to revise and update the Restatement Second of Torts. Completely superseding Section 402A of Restatement Second, promulgated 34 years ago, this monumental new work comprehensively covers the complex field of products liability. The text responds to products liability issues that have become points of serious contention in the courts, but which were not part of the products liability landscape when the earlier provision was adopted in 1964.
Three decades after the Institute revolutionized products liability law with its formulation of Section 402A, it concluded the time was ripe to revisit and reconsider the subject in light of subsequent developments. Now published in its official form, Restatement Third, Torts: Products Liability represents a thorough reformulation and expansion of Section 402A and related sections of Restatement Second, which will enable practitioners in the field to analyze the issues confronting them with greater sophistication than afforded by the previous Restatement. Especially notable are the careful separation of product defect into distinct categories and the development of separate rules for special products and product markets. Also covered in detail is liability of product sellers not based upon defects at the time of sale, including liability for post-sale failure to warn, and successor liability.
Responding to the need to provide both reasonable protection for the interests of consumers and workers and practicable standards of conduct for those who produce goods, the new Restatement articulates clearer answers to the question of whether a product is defective by formulating three distinct categories of product defect and the legal standards appropriate to each:
• Manufacturing Defects — when the product departs from its intended design, even if all possible care was exercised.
• Design Defects — when the foreseeable risks of harm posed by the product could have been reduced or avoided by the adoption of a reasonable alternative design, and failure to use the alternative design renders the product not reasonably safe.
• Inadequate Instructions or Warnings Defects — when the foreseeable risks of harm posed by the product could have been reduced or avoided by reasonable instructions or warnings, and their omission renders the product not reasonably safe.
The work also develops special rules for component parts, prescription drugs and medical devices, food, and used products.
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