A Review of <em>Torts and Compensation: Personal Accountability and Social Responsibility for Injury</em>

I will review my selection of Dobbs and Hayden's Torts And Compensation, Personal Accountability And Social Responsibility For Injury (hereinafter "the Dobbs casebook") for use in my year-long first-year torts class. My review will focus on the third edition and will note changes made in the fourth edition, which came out recently. My hope is to tell you a little about the Dobbs casebook and a little about why I thought it would suit my incoming first-year students and my style of teaching. When selecting a casebook I have four main concerns: What is the coverage?

Does the casebook employ the traditional case method, a problem approach, or some combination? What is the balance struck by the authors between exploring policy and explaining black letter law? Is the casebook student- and faculty-friendly? The short answers to these questions are that the Dobbs casebook's coverage focuses on personal injury, it uses predominately the traditional case method, it stresses black letter law over policy, and it is extremely student- and faculty-friendly.