Regulation, Risk, and Wrongdoing: Negligence law reform and a natural rights approach to justice
Toby Handfield, Monash Small Grant, 2004.
This project examines the relationship between (1) the right to be free from harm and (2) the legitimacy of imposing a risk of harm upon another person. This is a matter of fundamental concern to moral and political philosophy, since governments very often prohibit or otherwise curtail the undertaking of risky activities, and it is unclear whether this can be supported within a rights-based theory of political justice. It has ramifications for numerous areas of political policy, but in this project, I propose to examine the implications for the legitimacy of current proposals for negligence law reform in Australia, including no-fault insurance schemes.