The Yale/NYU lawprof has published Tort Reform, Kiwi-Style on SSRN (via Robinette, TortsProf). Abstract: American legal scholars and social scientists have long been intrigued by New Zealand's accident compensation system, which essentially abolished common law tort almost 40 years ago....

Odd doings continue in the $22.5 billion lawsuit, per Bloomberg: ``Every legal system has its flaws,'' [plaintiff's expert and Harvard lawprof Alan Dershowitz] said in an interview yesterday. ``Who are we to cast aspersions on a country's legal system?''... Leading...

The U.S. Chamber-backed West Virginia Record critically summarizes the tortuous course of the state's lawsuit against Oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma, often raised by critics as symbolic of their objections to Attorney General Darrell McGraw's handling of his office. More here,...

Now Chestnut Hill Hospital is closing its 1,000-babies-a-year maternity unit (via Pero). More background here....

Another study helps put to rest a litigation-driven canard. And, also via Orac, Ira Flatow interviews Paul Offit, author of the important new book hitting the bookstores this month, "Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for...

The most affecting part of John McCain’s acceptance speech was also the most surprising: McCain’s admission that he was broken by torture. I had read a little about this before on...

I usually skip watching political conventions entirely, given that they are just staged political propaganda for each party, providing a forum for politicians on each side to present rhetoric that mostly...

The small Israeli flag visible in Gov. Palin's office window has been the subject of much speculation. I've even seen allegations in the blogosphere that the flag was photoshopped into a...

At Tim Blair's blog, some are speculating about why Barack Obama might have mispronounced "Wasilla" as "Wassily."...

Ana Marie Cox (tip to Tim Blair):...