University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository
Abstract
The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 (the Fund) was part of legislation enacted just eleven days after the terrorist attacks of September 11th in the wake of extraordinary national loss. It is possible, therefore, that the Fund will always be considered an urgent and unique response to the unprecedented events of September 11th. On that view, the character of the Fund will have little longterm policy significance. It is equally possible, however, that the enactment of the Fund will prove to be a seminal moment in the history of tort and compensation law. The Fund adopts a new model for compensating loss of life. This model will inevitably be invoked as a standard against which other approaches may be measured, and it may well be employed again in the event that we experience another major terrorist attack on American soil. Thus, with respect to this new model of compensation, there is a sense in which the genie may be out of the bottle: What the Fund did will have to be considered whenever new approaches to compensating personal injury and illness are contemplated
