The IT Law Wiki
The IT Law Wiki

Overview[]

Strict liability is a legal doctrine that makes a person responsible for the damages and loss caused by his/her acts and omissions regardless of culpability (or fault in criminal law terms, which would normally be expressed through a mens rea requirement. Strict liability is important in torts (especially product liability), corporate law, and criminal law.

Tort law[]

As stated by the U.S. Supreme Court:

The paradigmatic products-liability action is one where a product "reasonably certain to place life and limb in peril," distributed without reinspection, causes bodily injury. See, e.g., MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co., 217 N.Y. 382, 389, 111 N.E. 1050, 1051, 1053 (1916). The manufacturer is liable whether or not it is negligent because "public policy demands that responsibility be fixed wherever it will most effectively reduce the hazards to life and health inherent in defective products that reach the market." Escola v. Coca Cola Bottling Co. of Fresno, 24 Cal.2d, at 462, 150 P.2d, at 441 (opinion concurring in judgment).[1]

References[]

  1. Saratoga Fishing Co. v. J.M. Martinac & Co., 520 U.S. 875 (1997) (full-text).
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