Dean Paul Hayden Continues Legacy of Prosser & Keeton on Torts

Few law books are as universally recognized for their impact on a subject area as “Prosser & Keeton on Torts.” Loyola Law School Interim Dean Paul T. Hayden is carrying on the legacy of the 1941 tome that has become an essential study aid for generations of law students and lawyers. Along with two co-authors, he recently published “Hornbook on Torts,” a 1,200-page book that provides a single-volume overview of the entire field of tort law that is the successor volume to Prosser & Keeton’s work.

Originally written by William Lloyd Prosser, iconic professor and longtime dean of Berkeley Law, and later joined by Page Keeton, dean of the University of Texas Law School, the last edition of that hornbook book came out in 1984. Hayden’s collaborator Dan B. Dobbs (himself a co-author of the 1984 Prosser & Keeton edition) produced the first new edition of its replacement (titled “The Law of Torts”) in 2000. Hayden began writing the annual supplements to that book several years later. A few years ago, Hayden, Dobbs and co-author Ellie Bublick decided it was high time for second edition, which hit shelves in early January 2016.

The impact and importance of the new book are not lost on Hayden. “The ‘Prosser & Keeton Torts Hornbook’ was one of the books I relied on heavily as a first-year law student 35 years ago,” said Hayden, the Thomas V. Girardi Professor of Consumer Protection Law. “It’s gratifying to be part of such a legacy.”

Hayden’s other works include the widely adopted casebooks “Ethical Lawyering: Legal and Professional Responsibilities in the Practice of Law,” “Torts and Compensation,” “Global Issues in Tort Law” and “The Law of Torts,” a four-volume treatise with annual supplements. But “Hornbook on Torts” possesses a unique value to Hayden.

“We hope that it will aid law students, professors, lawyers and judges as they navigate an area of law that is superficially simple but often mystifyingly complex and obtuse in application.”