ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the concept of vulnerability, developed in the work of Martha Fineman, both informs this expanded approach to vicarious liability and can guide its future development in a more coherent fashion. It offers a novel application of vulnerability theory to institutional liability across several common law jurisdictions and demonstrates that those jurisdictions with less developed jurisprudence in these areas would benefit from greater explicit consideration of the role of vulnerability. Scholarship on vulnerability to date has addressed several substantive issues, such as the legal organisation of work, public responsibility in the context of privatisation and the role of law regarding the elderly. Canada was first to reconsider the law on vicarious liability in light of the dependencies involved in institutional and child sex abuse. Vulnerability theory usefully clarifies the relationships between concepts such as vulnerability, dependency and control that are central to institutional liability.
