IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/empleg/v6y2009i3p585-635.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Letting Good Deeds Go Unpunished: Volunteer Immunity Laws and Tort Deterrence

Author

Listed:
  • Jill R. Horwitz
  • Joseph Mead

Abstract

Does tort law deter risky behavior in individuals? We explore this question by examining the relationship between tort immunity and volunteering. During the 1980s and 1990s, nearly every state provided some degree of volunteer immunity. Congress followed with the 1997 Volunteer Protection Act. This article analyzes these acts, identifying three motivations for them: the chilling effects of tort liability, limits on liability insurance, and moral concerns. Using data from the Independent Survey's Giving and Volunteering surveys, we then identify a large and positive correlation between immunity and volunteering. We next consider the implications of the findings for tort theory and nonprofit law.

Suggested Citation

  • Jill R. Horwitz & Joseph Mead, 2009. "Letting Good Deeds Go Unpunished: Volunteer Immunity Laws and Tort Deterrence," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(3), pages 585-635, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:6:y:2009:i:3:p:585-635
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1740-1461.2009.01154.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-1461.2009.01154.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1740-1461.2009.01154.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gerrit De Geest, 2012. "Who Should Be Immune from Tort Liability?," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(2), pages 291-319.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:6:y:2009:i:3:p:585-635. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1740-1461 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.