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And for your solution of suing them all: That doesn't work because you cannot prove which, if any of the polluters is responsible for the pollutants in your yard. You simply cannot prove which Chinese guy's car produced the NO2 that is in your backyard.
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You wouldn't need to. See, e.g., the DES market share tort liability cases (Hymowitz vs. Lilly, 73 NY2d 487).
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Those cases are contrary to the libertarian norms of not being liable until proven beyond a reasonable doubt and strict causality.
"But the best standard for any proof of guilt is the one commonly used in criminal cases: Proof "beyond a reasonable doubt." Obviously, some doubt will almost always persist in gauging people's actions, so that such a standard as "beyond a scintilla of doubt" would be hopelessly unrealistic. But the doubt must remain small enough that any "reasonable man" will be convinced of the fact of the defendant's guilt. Conviction of guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt" appears to be the standard most consonant with libertarian principle.
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What the plaintiff must prove, then, beyond a reasonable doubt is a strict causal connection between the defendant and his aggression against the plaintiff. He must prove, in short, that A actually "caused" an invasion of the person or property of B."
http://www.mises.org/story/2120
If the market is going to bend the rules of libertarian justice anyway, why not just go all the way and allow the even more effective solution of preemptive regulation?
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You'll have to take that one up with the Austrians. I disagree with the ideas outlined in the linked article, as do, I bet, most law-and-econ people. As a free market system of law would likely tend toward efficiency, I don't think these Misesian ideas would prevail.
And the issue of whether preemptive regulation actually works better is far from settled. To paraphrase Coase, in the real world, there are no perfect solutions, just a choice between imperfect govt solutions and imperfect market solutions.
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The market-share tort liability model works okay when you're dealing with a situation like 5 companies who manufactured the same drug that caused birth defects. But do you really think that would be a helpful model for dealing with hundreds of millions of people polluting with their cars?
[/ QUOTE ]Well why couldn't a market solution be to sue the companies that produce the cars or something along those lines?