ABSTRACT
Tort theory is an anxious field, either trying to explain the body of tort law through a unified account or surrendering to the view that torts is just an accumulation of ad hoc policy judgments without a consistent explanatory basis. In this chapter, author argues that the natural law theory in the Christian tradition breaks through this impasse in tort theory by showing how the basic outlines of tort law are properly derived from principles of morality, while the details within that framework are left open for choice among a wide range of reasonable arrangements. Aquinas's multivalent view of how natural law and positive law are related allows for both a strong relation of positive law to morality and an open range of indifferent, though reasonable options. For much of the twentieth century, external, instrumentalist understandings reigned supreme in tort theory, if not always in practice.
