The Value of Rights of Action: From Civil Recourse to Class Action

Abstract

The ambition of this Essay is to examine the value of private rights of action, addressing the question why do private rights of action in the torts context matter. Our answer — that private rights may be instrumentally and, at times, non-instrumentally valuable to doing justice — has immediate implications for the civil-procedure law surrounding tort law. It suggests that where private rights of action are strictly instrumental, other devices may, under certain circumstances, be necessary, and possibly even sufficient, for doing justice.