ABSTRACT
In an entertaining and wide-ranging article that argues for a reconsideration of ideas of time and causation in relation to tort law, Ann Scales tells of seeing a cartoon of the Exxon Valdez with a ‘Shit Happens’ bumper sticker on its side.21 Tort law is in many ways about how the legal system affixes – or declines to affix – the ‘Shit Happens’ label to various injurious events. Not all injuries will give rise to a claim for compensation. Such a claim, we have suggested, is predicated on notions of fault and causation. Given this differential legal treatment of injuries, the distribution of types of injury will itself affect the distribution of successful claims.
