Primacy in Products Liability: A Comparison of Israeli and American Law

תקציר

Israel is the second country in the world to enact a product liability scheme in a comprehensive coordinated fashion (i.e., as a Directive, Restatement or Statute) after the United States and before the European Union and Britain. Its schema, statutorily, however is hydra-headed. Thus actions brought for damages occasioned by defective products may be brought under several statutes, (The Law s of Torts, Negligence, Sales, Consumer Protection and for Defective Products) each with their own nascent history and expository case law. Merely looking at the statutes facially, one would expect the resolution to be no different from that arising under the Second Restatement of Torts. But, a review of relevant case law plus attention to the Israeli predilection for economically-driven tort reform might well herald a different future.<br><br>As Israel increasingly becomes a world player in technologically advance products (TAPs), attention to the multi-tiered system of the Israeli liability system is warranted. This article sets for the details of the applicable statutes and contrasts them to American law as a platform for future analysis.