On January 7th, a group of 3L students received a private tour of the newly opened American Museum of Tort Law. The museum—established by American political activist and attorney Ralph Nader and built in Nader’s hometown of Winsted, CT—opened in September 2015 to honor the field of law that affects the everyday lives of all Americans. The museum is the only one of its kind in the nation, and all law students, faculty, and staff are highly encouraged to pay it a visit.
The museum is set up as a walking tour. The first attraction is a visual timeline, highlighting the main turns and developments of tort law in our country. For example, it features the creation of the concept of negligence in the 1850s, the introduction of comparative fault in the 1970s, and the rise of the influence of public policy on the law during the 1990s. The tour then continues into a room featuring the main precedent-setting cases in tort law—Byrne v. Boadle (res ipsa loquitur), U.S. v. Carroll Towing Co. (the Hand formula), and Tarasoft v. Regents (professional duty to warn), among others—most of which UConn Law students read in 1L Torts.
From there, the museum has a screening room for a brief documentary on the evolution and importance of tort law, and houses a room dedicated to “dangerous toys,” showing various items for children that were found to have presented a choking hazard, for example, or were manufactured in such a way as to render them potentially hazardous
The museum ends with a room of visually stunning dis- plays representing some of the more famous and wacky cases that have made a difference in American tort law. Such cases include: scalding hot McDonald’s coffee, the tobacco/cigarette health warning cases, and the Ford Pinto. Additionally, the room holds a replica of the Chevy Corvair, a vehicle resulting in over 100 lawsuits in the early 1960s against General Motors for negligent manufacturing, and the feature of Ralph Nader’s 1965 book, Unsafe at Any Speed.
Overall, the museum provides an extremely informative and visually pleasing overview of the history of tort law in the United States, with all of its twists and turns. Although all law students would benefit from a ending the museum and should consider making the trip down Route 44 to Winsted, the museum would be particularly enlightening and valuable to a layperson not as well versed in the law. And, just like the group of students that visited the Museum in January, you could be lucky enough to get a surprise visit from Ralph Nader himself.
The American Museum of Tort Law is located in Winsted, CT, a 30-minute drive from the Law School. The regular admission fee for the museum is $7.00 for adults and $5.00 for students and seniors. For more information, please visit the museum’s website.
Link to PDF of March Issue:
https://uconnlawprosenews.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/march-issue-final.pdf
