The emergence and evolution of the economic loss rule is the most important development of the past generation in the American common law of torts. It has also been the most confusing development. Courts have struggled to define the rule and have assigned it different boundaries in different states, making it a frequent source of puzzlement and dread for lawyers. The American Law Institute’s Restatement Third, Torts: Liability for Economic Harm has set out to assign the economic loss rule an accurate meaning and a useful purpose, and to clarify the scope of liability in tort for pure economic loss generally. This purpose of this Article is to concisely explain the reasoning behind those efforts and the outcome of them.

To access the complete article, originally appearing in Volume 50, Number 2 of the Valparaiso University Law Review, visit http://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr/vol50/iss2/6.