Graduation Year
2024
Date of Submission
4-2024
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE)
Second Department
Philosophy
Reader 1
Paul Hurley
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2024 Grace Hong
Abstract
Despite insurance being a deciding factor in whether liability is found in tort cases, it is not always reflected in tort theories and court opinions. In this paper, I offer a framework for reconceiving the role of insurance in tort law. To achieve this, I outline where insurance falls into instrumental and non-instrumental theories and why non-instrumental theories are more persuasive. After establishing this, I move to Goldberg and Zipursky’s civil recourse theory and delineate how similarities between the right to vote and right of action indicate parallel problems with failures to comprehend lack of access to the political process and tort system. By drawing on the distinction between ideal and non-ideal theory, I separate what tort law demands of insurance in unjust versus ideal conditions. Finally, drawing on Stephen and Julian Darwall’s theory of civil recourse as mutual accountability, I argue for an expansion of insurance, such as in cases of domestic violence, given the present environment of injustice and offer additional remedies to complement it.
Recommended Citation
Hong, Grace, "Reconceiving Tort Law and the Role of Insurance: Achieving Mutual Accountability" (2024). CMC Senior Theses. 3673.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/3673
