Torts and Retribution
The Case for Punitive Damages

The first book that advances a convincing theoretical retributive framework enabling the analysis of punitive damages across jurisdictions.

María Guadalupe Martínez Alles (Author)

9781009567893, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 August 2025

314 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.62 kg

'A thoughtful and rigorously argued work. It engages the reader with its clarity and provokes reflection through its challenging claims. The book is interesting for anyone interested in legal theory, whether they are curious to understand the connections the author draws between tort law and criminal law, or want to discover a whole new world of discussion. Torts and Retribution challenges common assumptions about tort law and proposes a novel vision that links private law and criminal law.' Gustavo A. Beade, Jurisprudence

Torts and Retribution is the first work of its kind to offer a comprehensive analytical retributive framework for punitive damages across legal jurisdictions. It expands the scope of tort theory by unchaining it from the canonically exclusive perspective of the defendant by integrating the long-overlooked perspective of victims of reprehensible wrongdoing seeking punitive awards. Its cross-disciplinary approach brings to tort theory insights from empirical research on social cognition and theoretical debates over the retributive justifications for the imposition of punishment under a conceptual framework coined Relational Retribution. This framework suits both the bilateral structure of tort law and the proactive role allocated to the victim in tort litigation. By recognizing the fundamental connection between the defendant and the plaintiff, Relational Retribution focuses both on punishment as the imposition of a deserved sanction and on the significance of the wrongdoing for the victims and their demand for denunciation and value affirmation.

Introduction: tort law punishes
I. The Place of Punishment in Torts: 1. Punishment is part of tort law
2. Punishment in tort theory
II. The Retributive Rationale: 3. The punitive puzzle: shifting away from deterrence
4. Relational retribution
5. Overcoming compensatory reductionism
III. Retribution in the Mass-Market Setting: 6. Understanding the collective context of wrongdoing
7. Punitive damages as retributive sanctions for violations of societal trust
8. Product liability, risk regulation and new technologies
IV. Why Tort Law: 9. The significance of the tort victim
10. The significance of the tort process
Conclusion: reconciling torts and retribution.

Subject Areas: Torts / Delicts [LNV]