Nora Freeman Engstrom, JD ’02, the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law, has once again played a leading role in shaping American tort law. Engstrom recently co-led the American Law Institute’s (ALI) newly approved Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Miscellaneous Provisions, a volume that brings clarity to vast swaths of tort doctrine.

At its annual meeting in May, members of ALI approved the Restatement, marking the completion of the drafting phase of a major component of the ALI’s decades-long revision of its Third Restatement of Torts. The ALI’s Restatements are extremely influential in the legal world, guiding courts, legislatures, scholars, and legal practitioners in understanding and applying the law. Indeed, the Second Restatement of Torts has been cited by courts more than 80,000 times.

The Miscellaneous Provisions project, which spans more than 1,200 pages in all, addresses a wide range of topics, including vicarious liability, wrongful death and survival actions, parental standards of care, spoliation of evidence, harm before and regarding birth, medical monitoring, statutes of limitations and repose, immunities, liability for sexual assault, and interference with the right to vote. Engstrom led the effort with Michael D. Green of Washington University in St. Louis.

The project initially included provisions on medical malpractice. However, after the ALI determined that this area of tort law was sufficiently complex and voluminous to warrant independent treatment, the Medical Malpractice portion of the project was spun off and produced separately as the Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Medical Malpractice, an effort Engstrom and Green also co-led, along with Mark Hall of Wake Forest University School of Law.

“Our goal was to ensure that vital areas of tort doctrine—those not addressed in other Restatement projects—were given the careful and comprehensive treatment they deserve,” Engstrom said in a joint statement with Green.

Engstrom, co-director of Stanford Law School’s Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession, also serves as an Adviser to the Third Restatement of Torts: Remedies project as well as the new Principles project: Civil Liability for Artificial Intelligence. In 2022, the ALI awarded her the R. Ammi Cutter Reporter’s Chair for her efforts, one of the highest honors the organization bestows.

The Miscellaneous Provisions Restatement honors the legacy of the late William C. Powers Jr., former President of the University of Texas at Austin, who co-led the project until his death in 2019. Engstrom and Green explained that “Bill’s brilliance, warmth, and vision helped guide this work from its earliest days, and his influence is present on every page. We are honored to have helped bring his vision to fruition.” The team also included Associate Reporters Guy Miller Struve (retired, Davis Polk & Wardwell) and Tanya D. Marsh (Wake Forest).

In a joint statement, Engstrom and Green also expressed their gratitude, “to the many ALI members, Council members, Advisers, and Members Consultative Group participants who gave their time, ideas, and insights to improve this project.”

“Working on this Restatement has been both challenging and deeply rewarding,” Engstrom said. “These are areas of law that affect people’s lives in profound ways, yet they’ve often received fragmented or inconsistent treatment. It’s been an immense privilege to help bring clarity and structure to such a wide-ranging and important set of doctrines.”