The American Law Institute (ALI) has named Nora Freeman Engstrom, Stanford Professor of Law, Deane F. Johnson Faculty Scholar, a co-reporter for their ongoing Restatement Third of Torts: Concluding Provisions. This project is one of three new projects, which will complete ALI’s Restatement Third of Torts and address important matters in torts not covered by the other parts of the Third Restatement, including medical liability, vicarious liability and wrongful death. Engstrom, along with her co-reporters, will structure the project, as well as prepare and present drafts of the Restatement.

The ALI’s Restatements aim at clear formulations of common law and its statutory elements or variations and reflect the law as it presently stands or might appropriately be stated by a court. These Restatements exert an immense influence on courts, legislatures, and legal scholarship, and they promote and facilitate coherence in the law’s development. This project is the successor to the Restatement Second of Torts, published in 1965 with William L. Prosser, former dean of UC Berkeley’s law school, acting as reporter. Revision of the Restatement Second of Torts began in the early 1990s and, since then, portions of the Restatement Third of Torts have already been released, including sections on Products Liability, Apportionment of Liability, and Liability for Physical and Emotional Harm.

“Personally, I learned torts, in a large measure, by poring over the Second Restatement,” said Engstrom. “Picking up the baton from Prosser is enormously humbling, but my co-reporters and I will do our very best to continue his legacy.”

“The ALI is extremely fortunate to have Nora Engstrom added to its distinguished roster of reporters involved in the Third Restatement project,” said Robert L. Rabin, A. Calder Mackay Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and a renowned tort law expert. “She is a leading light in the younger generation of torts scholars.”

The American Law Institute is the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law. The ALI drafts, discusses, revises, and publishes Restatements of the Law, Model Codes, and Principles of Law that are enormously influential in the courts and legislatures, as well as in legal scholarship and education.

About Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School is one of the nation’s leading institutions for legal scholarship and education.  Its alumni are among the most influential decision makers in law, politics, business and high technology.  Faculty members argue before the Supreme Court, testify before Congress, produce outstanding legal scholarship and empirical analysis, and contribute regularly to the nation’s press as legal and policy experts. Stanford Law School has established a new model for legal education that provides rigorous interdisciplinary training, hands-on experience, global perspective and focus on public service, spearheading a movement for change.