God Bless American Tort Law
Joe, you don't know how good you've got it.
I was just reminded of this by yet another news item warning yet again that Istanbul is on schedule to be leveled by a massive earthquake.
What does this have to do with tort law? I'll let Anne Applebaum explain; she put it well. Why, she asked rhetorically, did Chile fare so much better than Haiti in the aftermath of a similarly strong earthquake?
Before the quake, Chile also had regulations in place that required contractors to construct all new buildings to earthquake-resistant standards. Not every structure met the standards, but many did. And residents of those that did not will have some recourse: In the city of Concepción, residents of a new building that collapsed completely are threatening to take their builders to court, according to one report. The fact that they are even discussing this option implies that these apartment owners believe they have a court system that works, a legal system that could force builders to pay compensation, and a building regulatory system that is generally respected. Haiti has none of the above.
Turkey has none of the above either, and let me tell you, this I know from experience. Last year at around this time, the building I lived in was destroyed by a sleazy construction company that found the structures next door to my building--a protected, historic bathhouse and the wall abutting it--an impediment to their plans to build an ugly modern high-rise on the lot next door to mine. So they had a little "accident." They knocked down the wall, and nearly collapsed my building in the process. They rendered the building completely uninhabitable. They did this in the full knowledge that the building was full of people. They nearly killed us all. They also left me homeless. I wrote about the incident here:
It is estimated that 90 percent of the construction in Istanbul is illegal, and much of this construction does not conform to safety codes, earthquake codes in particular. This story is evidence of this. ...
The justice system in Turkey is severely overtaxed. Criminal trials can take years. Turks are reluctant to use the civil justice system: They believe nothing will ever be resolved by it, and quite often they are right. Construction companies such as this one count on this fact.
When I told Sargin that I would bring civil charges against him, he shrugged and said, "Go ahead." If companies like this are ever to be forced to respect the law, they must be made to believe that there will be penalties for violating it, and that these penalties will be swift and certain.
I am assured that it will take at least another year for the courts to render a verdict on my lawsuit against the company, and that in all likelihood I won't collect a penny.
Yes, America's a very litigious society. God bless America. It's not until you live in a country where the words "I'm going to sue your keister off" mean nothing whatsoever that you realize how much of our civilization is built upon the credibility of that threat.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: God Bless American Tort Law
Joe Escalante's video and short article focus on our U. S. courts being used to abuse individuals over 'a font' that was used in a parody. There is no call for dropping the tort system, rather simply a subtle suggestion, at least to me, of reforming it to lessen or eliminate these type of abuses.
The harm that legal cases based on lives and property lost or potentially lost due to building codes violations and the lives and property lost or potentially lost due to 'font usage' are not equal enough to warrant them being compared.
Jun '10
Re: God Bless American Tort Law
Good morning, Claire.
Question: "Should a man be permitted to wear a gold tooth on the sabbath?"
Only a Jew would ask such a question, but there is deep significance in the fact that someone is asking. Our Judeo-Christian heritage, founded in law, and expressed by our morality and ethics, is one of the great pillars of American culture. Your Turkish example offers a good illustration of what happens in a culture where the rule of law is lacking. Or perhaps it's better to say that the Turks have law, but no justice. It's no wonder Turkey is such a low-trust society. I suppose the Turks have many fine qualities, but I would be uncomfortable living in a society where life can be so utterly random. "Inshallah." A legacy of Islam perhaps?
Re: God Bless American Tort Law
Oh! I didn't see that Joe had posted a video -- YouTube being banned here. I'll see if I can find a way to watch it. You're right, oleneo65, I shouldn't have compared them without understanding the details of his case.
Paules--yes, that's exactly what life here feels like: "uncomfortably random." Living here has really made me understand that only tort law stands between most human beings and simply unfathomable stupidity.
May '10
Re: God Bless American Tort Law
The real difference is cultural, which manifests itself in rule of law. Chile is known as the Germany of Latin America, where people insist on an orderly and efficient society. It is the only place in Latin America for example where you would get locked up for trying to bribe a policeman.
Building codes are enforced because the people in Chile wouldn't have it any other way. That plus the fact that potentially catastrophic earthquakes occur with regularity there, where Istanbul doesn't have a lot of them. This frequence makes a significant difference. In the Philippines, that gets shakes with almost monotonist regularity, you don't get a lot of damage either - even though the rule of law is not exactly world leading.
May '10
Re: God Bless American Tort Law
Smoking weed, regulating pet adoption, "I'm a liberal," praise for plaintiff's attorneys... are you sure you didn't confuse this site with JournoList? ;-)
Re: God Bless American Tort Law
Try mentioning the auto bailout, Trace. You'll find out quick enough that I'm in the right place.
Re: God Bless American Tort Law
Claire -- Don't know if you've tracked down Joe's video yet, but here's the URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8GKrHSSWvs&feature=player_embedded
Re: God Bless American Tort Law
Yeah, I just saw that. I gave him my advice. You can't deal with bullies by annoying them back. If you're going to fight, you better be prepared to kill. They need a lawyer, and they need to make it clear they're simply going to annihilate Variety if they keep this up.
Re: God Bless American Tort Law
Since the fifth century, Istanbul has had 12 massive quakes, most recently at the end of the 19th century. Since 1939 there have been seven earthquakes with a magnitude of 7+, all on the Anatolian fault and all marching westward from eastern Turkey in a linear progression toward Istanbul. In Istanbul this century, 5+: 1923 (twice), 1952, 1957, 1963, 1988. Then the Izmit quake in 1999 ... 40,000 dead ... no, I wouldn't quite say that Istanbul doesn't have a lot of them.