In this paper we investigate the correct magnitude of pain and suffering damages for personal injuries. These damages differ greatly between and within countries, and the law of damages does not provide a framework to assess the correctness of the granted amounts. In our view, Law and Economics...

Insights from psychology have recently found their way into tort law, suggesting that both victims and juries suffer from hedonic misperceptions which are attributed to the psychological phenomena of hedonic adaptation neglect and the focusing illusion, causing victims to exaggerate their...

Given the threats of our current 'risk society', there is an ever-increasing demand for safety regulation to counter the harmful effects of an equally growing number of dangerous activities. Claims for more safety and security abound, ranging from concerns about people killed in traffic...

In this chapter, written for the book 'Law and Method. Interdisciplinary Research info Law', we describe the methodology of Law and Economics. We start by discussing the mainstream economic approach to law, including the topics of rationality, the use of (sometimes unrealistic) assumptions, the...

In the law and economics literature liability is generally regarded as an instrument which provides potential tortfeasors with incentives for optimal care taking. The question, however, arises whether liability can still provide those incentives when risks are unknown. That is the central...

In this contribution we focus on the role of experts in the assessment of tort damages from an economic point of view. We distinguish two different aspects.First, we examine the role which economists might play in assessing damages in tort cases. This approach focuses on the insights that Law...

In this paper I analyze, from a Law and Economics perspective, whether the mere loss of time should be regarded as a compensable non-pecuniary loss. I spend attention to the debate between the Prevention Theory and the Insurance Theory and argue that non-pecuniary losses in general should be...

In various countries, initiatives have been taken to speed up the process to provide compensation to victims of personal injury. There are some concerns that speeding up the process (inter alia via alternative dispute resolution mechanisms) may go at the expense of accuracy. Within this paper,...

In this paper, we study judicial attitudes and decision-making in mass litigation in the light of social sciences, namely rational choice theory and behavioural economics. These insights offer complementary views that are relevant in times where judges have been assigned increased...