Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Using Motion Capture Technology in the Instrumented Timed Up and Go Test to Detect the Risk of Falling in Aged Adults
Published on: October 25, 2024
Torts and innovation
Gideon Parchomovsky1, Alex Stein
1University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Bar-Ilan University School of Law, Israel.
Abstract:
This Essay exposes and analyzes a hitherto overlooked cost of tort law: its adverse effect on innovation. Tort liability for negligence, defective products, and medical malpractice is determined by reference to custom. We demonstrate that courts' reliance on custom and conventional technologies as the benchmark of liability chills innovation and distorts its path. Specifically, recourse to custom taxes innovators and subsidizes replicators of conventional technologies. We explore the causes and consequences of this phenomenon and propose two possible ways to modify tort law in order to make it more welcoming to innovation.
Related Concept Videos
Torts I
Intentional...
Torts II
Torts III
Quasi-intentional torts in healthcare involve acts where intent is not directed to harm an individual but results in harm due to careless or reckless speech.
Evolution of New Traits in Microbes
Creative Thinking
Divergent thinking is the...
Social Traps

