A review of Keating's essay 'Distributive and Corrective Justice in Accident Tort'
Corrective Justice Theory – the most influential non-economic perspective on tort law – understands tort law as embodying a system of first- and second-order duties. First order duties are duties not to cause harm. These duties establish standards of behavior. Some theorists believe that corrective justice has nothing to say about the situation. This new theory, the corrective justice theory of punishment, includes three sentencing principles. First, punishment must actually deter crime and be the most effective means of doing so. Secondly, punishment, however efficient it may be, should not cause an offender more harm than is necessary to remedy his contribution to crime.1. Introduction. As David Ibbetson says: 'That the tort of negligence is a mess almost goes without saying.' The reason for this state of affairs is that judges and commentators have not been able to agree on what the law of negligence is about, on what types of standards the law of negligence recognizes and protects. Most importantly, they are the meaning of corrective justice. Corrective justice is the idea that accountability redresses wrongs done by one individual to another. This idea received its classical formulation in Aristotle's treatment of justice in Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1. More recently it has become primary to modern theories of private regulation..