Every country gets the tort system it deserves but the victims of accidents and disease universally deserve better than they receive. In the United States, as befits the home of big business, the tort system has been estimated (by Sturgis, 1985) to cost $68 billion, but this rapidly expanding industry returns only 25 cents on the dollar to those who win in the fault lottery, and nothing to those who lose.

If you wonder why such an inefficient method of redistributing accident costs has not been replaced (nor is likely to be) by national no-fault compensation schemes, you will find the answers in this fascinating in-depth account of the way in which the American tort system operates in practice. The book is not about the doctrines of tort law, which share a superficial similarity throughout the common law world, but concerns the “process” or unique institutional framework in which those doctrines operate, and which shapes the black-letter law in the United States. As one would expect from a leading comparatist and author of a brilliant textbook on the common law of tort (currently in its 7th edition), Professor Fleming makes many penetrating comparisons both with England, and with civil law systems.