Lessons from History: State Constitutions, American Tort Law, and the Medical Malpractice Crisis

To judge by the heated rhetoric surrounding the issue, both sides of the tort-reform debate see it as a relatively new phenomenon that has only in the past several decades pitted advocates of reform against protectors of state constitutional rights. But, according this report released by The Project on Medical Liability in Pennsylvania, American tort law and the law of state constitutions have developed hand-in-hand over the past 125 years and have had reciprocal effects over time.