Law Students

Maritime Law #4: Recovery of Non-Pecuniary Damages (with Prof. Force)

By Marc

If you have taken civil procedure or listened to one of Neil’s podcasts on the subject, you may be familiar with the Erie doctrine.  In matters of admiralty law, the reverse Erie doctrine applies; common law is created by the federal judiciary.  Such federal common law rules are even binding on state courts hearing an admiralty case.  Professor Robert Force, the founding director of the Maritime Law Institute at Tulane University Law School has written several articles on how a 1990 Supreme Court case has affected maritime wrongful death and personal injury actions.  Specifically, the Court in Miles v. Apex Marine Corp. held that prohibitions against the recovery of non-pecuniary damages in statutorily created personal injury and wrongful death actions also applied to actions under general maritime law (read federal common law).  In this episode, I interview Professor Force, who provides some background on the judicial landscape of maritime tort actions as well as his analysis of the Miles decision.

Miles v. Apex Marine Corp. 

Full post as published by Life of a Law Student on January 31, 2007 (boomark / email).