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About the Book

Cases and Materials on Torts

Front Cover - Cases and Materials on Torts

Tenth Edition

Richard A. Epstein
New York University School of Law

Catherine M. Sharkey
New York University School of Law

2012. Approximately 1,488 pages. ISBN: 978-0-7355-9992-5


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About the Book

Well-known torts expert Richard A. Epstein skillfully and effectively integrates modern scholarship and historical background in this highly successful casebook. Cases and Materials on Torts, now in its tenth edition, is an excellent introduction to the first-year torts course that has been classroom-tested – and proven – by generations of law students.

Characteristics that have helped to make Cases and Materials on Torts a leader in the field include:

  • Authorship: Epstein is a leading scholar in the field, and the book’s definite economics-based point of view makes a good foil for counterpoint and fuels class discussion.
  • Traditional approach integrates cases with modern scholarship on moral theory, law and economics, and salient policy questions; begins with Intentional Torts.
  • Thoughtful presentation examines the processes of legal method, legal reasoning, and the impact of legal rules on social institutions; exposes students to different intellectual approaches that have been employed to interpret tort law over the years.
  • Historical background provides an accurate sense of tort law and its development up to the present.
  • The Teacher’s Manual offers proven teaching tips.

New to the Tenth Edition

  • New co-author, Catherine Sharkey, an expert on punitive damages and federal preemption of state tort law, has joined Epstein as co-editor.
  • Empirical approach to many issues harmonizes the topics with cutting edge scholarship.
  • Hypothetical problems, inspired by the facts of actual cases, have been added with the aim of helping students develop a deeper understanding of the core issues. 
  • New issues are explored, such as privacy and defamation in the age of the internet and the relevance of race and gender to damages calculations.

Well written and insightful, this venerable casebook provides a firm introduction to torts for first-year students, giving them a sense of the historical underpinnings of tort law as well as exposure to different intellectual approaches to interpreting it.