England and Wales

Developments in tort law in England and Wales in 202

Causation in Cases of Evidential Uncertainty: Juridical Techniques and Fundamental Issues

This paper reviews from a comparative legal perspective the range of juridical techniques that have been developed in different legal systems to address perceived problems of uncertain alternative causation. It finds that the process of development has generally proceeded in an ad hoc and unprincipled fashion, without regard for overall coherence. It argues for a more principled legal approach in which the appropriate legal response (full liability, proportional liability or no liability) is adopted on the basis of a ranking of the different categories of cases in which problems of causal uncertainty can arise, reflecting the strength (or weakness) of the arguments in favor of the imposition of (at least some) liability

Yangge Dance: The Rhythm of Liability for Medical Malpractice in the People\u27s Republic of China

This paper summarises the development of liability for medical malpractice in the People\u27s Republic of China, beginning with the establishment of a formal system of administrative liability in 1987, its refinement in 2002, and the broadly contemporaneous judicial recognition of a concurrent tortious liability under general civil law. All these developments may be said to have furthered the interests of patients. The incorporation of liability for medical malpractice into the Tort Liability Law of 2009, however, arguably marks a step backwards, subordinating the interests of patients in favor of the interests of the medical community, and further reforms in the same direction may be apprehended in the future. Yangge Dance, a traditional Chinese folk dance, provides an apt simile for this process of development, with its initial move of three steps forward followed by two steps back. The dance is concluded by two sideways steps—first to the right, then to the left—which may be taken to refer to the constant interplay between the two concurrent liability systems—one administrative, the other tortious—which is explored in its various dimensions in the article